Categories:
Cart 0

Your cart is empty

Alcest|Les voyages de l'âme

Les voyages de l'âme

Alcest

Available in
16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo

Unlimited Streaming

Listen to this album in high quality now on our apps

Start my trial period and start listening to this album

Enjoy this album on Qobuz apps with your subscription

Subscribe

Enjoy this album on Qobuz apps with your subscription

Digital Download

Purchase and download this album in a wide variety of formats depending on your needs.

Though French black metal has always been full of experimental weirdness that pushes at the genre's narrow boundaries, none has pushed the envelope as far as Alcest, a band that willfully combines black metal's buzz, gorgeous shoegaze melodies, ambient soundscapes, and post rock feedback. Les Voyages de l'Âme, Alcest's third full-length, arrives with great expectations based on the shock-of-the-new that greeted their debut, Souvenirs d'un Autre Monde, and its follow-up Ecailles de Lune. Alcest stands in its own "blackgaze" space at the crossroads of Burzum's Filosofem and My Bloody Valentine's Loveless. But one wonders how black that space can actually be with melodies that are so consciously attractive and lyrics that reject negativity. Founder, songwriter, and guitarist Neige was a one-man show until recently when Winterhalter was added on drums. Here Alcest's sound continues to evolve, stripping away more and more of metal's tropes; its production values have improved vasty as well. In its harmonic sophistication and layered sonic washes, its ability to create emotions that approach bliss in now part of its sonic architecture. Neige's vocals, decipherable at times, are all in French. They're meant to be another layer of that atmospheric palette; when they can be understood, they celebrate something spiritually positive though abstract. Multi-tracked electric and acoustic guitars and tension-tuned basses meet washes of synth and Winterhalter's tom-tom-heavy drum attack (no blastbeats) in songs that embrace the experience of an undefinable beauty in the shared terrain of spiritual, human, and natural worlds. The sense of "heaviness" in the mix is pronounced, but it employs aggression in a celebratory manner as evidenced by opener "Autre Temps" and closer "Summer Glory." Even at its harshest, when Neige is screaming, as on “Là où Naissent les Couleurs Nouvelles” and “Faiseurs de Mondes," the melodic beauty of the guitars seems to open up that expression, ensuring balance. This is music created to invite listeners to enter into the band's soundworld aesthetic, not be dictated to by it. Les Voyages de l'Âme is a conscious synthesis of the music from their two previous albums, rather than a move forward. And that's fine: assessment and integration and perfecting previous ideas are important aspects of any serious attempt at making art and creating a forward motion trajectory. Whether Les Voyages de l'Âmeis the band's finest album is a debate listeners will no doubt have, but is a great record;it simultaneously self-defining and alluring.
© Thom Jurek /TiVo

More info

Les voyages de l'âme

Alcest

launch qobuz app I already downloaded Qobuz for Windows / MacOS Open

download qobuz app I have not downloaded Qobuz for Windows / MacOS yet Download the Qobuz app

You are currently listening to samples.

Listen to over 100 million songs with an unlimited streaming plan.

Listen to this playlist and more than 100 million songs with our unlimited streaming plans.

From £10.83/month

1
Autre temps (Album version)
00:05:50

Stephane Paut, Composer, Author - Alcest, MainArtist - Mandarah MV, MusicPublisher

2012 Prophecy 2012 Prophecy

2
Là où naissent les couleurs nouvelles
00:08:50

Stephane Paut, Composer, Author - Alcest, MainArtist - Mandarah MV, MusicPublisher

2012 Prophecy 2012 Prophecy

3
Les voyages de l'âme
00:06:59

Stephane Paut, Composer, Author - Alcest, MainArtist - Mandarah MV, MusicPublisher

2012 Prophecy 2012 Prophecy

4
Nous sommes l'emeraude
00:04:20

Charles Van Lerberghe, Author - Stephane Paut, Composer - Alcest, MainArtist - Mandarah MV, MusicPublisher

2012 Prophecy 2012 Prophecy

5
Beings of Light
00:06:11

Stephane Paut, Composer, Author - Alcest, MainArtist - Mandarah MV, MusicPublisher

2012 Prophecy 2012 Prophecy

6
Faiseurs de mondes
00:07:57

Stephane Paut, Composer, Author - Alcest, MainArtist - Mandarah MV, MusicPublisher

2012 Prophecy 2012 Prophecy

7
Havens
00:02:10

Stephane Paut, Composer, Author - Alcest, MainArtist - Mandarah MV, MusicPublisher

2012 Prophecy 2012 Prophecy

8
Summer's Glory
00:08:04

Stephane Paut, Composer, Author - Alcest, MainArtist - Mandarah MV, MusicPublisher

2012 Prophecy 2012 Prophecy

Album review

Though French black metal has always been full of experimental weirdness that pushes at the genre's narrow boundaries, none has pushed the envelope as far as Alcest, a band that willfully combines black metal's buzz, gorgeous shoegaze melodies, ambient soundscapes, and post rock feedback. Les Voyages de l'Âme, Alcest's third full-length, arrives with great expectations based on the shock-of-the-new that greeted their debut, Souvenirs d'un Autre Monde, and its follow-up Ecailles de Lune. Alcest stands in its own "blackgaze" space at the crossroads of Burzum's Filosofem and My Bloody Valentine's Loveless. But one wonders how black that space can actually be with melodies that are so consciously attractive and lyrics that reject negativity. Founder, songwriter, and guitarist Neige was a one-man show until recently when Winterhalter was added on drums. Here Alcest's sound continues to evolve, stripping away more and more of metal's tropes; its production values have improved vasty as well. In its harmonic sophistication and layered sonic washes, its ability to create emotions that approach bliss in now part of its sonic architecture. Neige's vocals, decipherable at times, are all in French. They're meant to be another layer of that atmospheric palette; when they can be understood, they celebrate something spiritually positive though abstract. Multi-tracked electric and acoustic guitars and tension-tuned basses meet washes of synth and Winterhalter's tom-tom-heavy drum attack (no blastbeats) in songs that embrace the experience of an undefinable beauty in the shared terrain of spiritual, human, and natural worlds. The sense of "heaviness" in the mix is pronounced, but it employs aggression in a celebratory manner as evidenced by opener "Autre Temps" and closer "Summer Glory." Even at its harshest, when Neige is screaming, as on “Là où Naissent les Couleurs Nouvelles” and “Faiseurs de Mondes," the melodic beauty of the guitars seems to open up that expression, ensuring balance. This is music created to invite listeners to enter into the band's soundworld aesthetic, not be dictated to by it. Les Voyages de l'Âme is a conscious synthesis of the music from their two previous albums, rather than a move forward. And that's fine: assessment and integration and perfecting previous ideas are important aspects of any serious attempt at making art and creating a forward motion trajectory. Whether Les Voyages de l'Âmeis the band's finest album is a debate listeners will no doubt have, but is a great record;it simultaneously self-defining and alluring.
© Thom Jurek /TiVo

About the album

Improve album information

Qobuz logo Why buy on Qobuz...

On sale now...

Getz/Gilberto

Stan Getz

Getz/Gilberto Stan Getz

Moanin'

Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers

Moanin' Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers

Blue Train

John Coltrane

Blue Train John Coltrane

Speak No Evil

Wayne Shorter

Speak No Evil Wayne Shorter
More on Qobuz
By Alcest

Les Chants de l'Aurore

Alcest

L'Envol

Alcest

L'Envol Alcest

Écailles de lune

Alcest

Spiritual Instinct

Alcest

Kodama

Alcest

Kodama Alcest

Playlists

You may also like...

i/o

Peter Gabriel

i/o Peter Gabriel

Money For Nothing

Dire Straits

Money For Nothing Dire Straits

Rumours

Fleetwood Mac

Rumours Fleetwood Mac

Now And Then

The Beatles

Now And Then The Beatles

Dark Matter

Pearl Jam

Dark Matter Pearl Jam