Een tijdje terug vroeg ik me nog af wat in in hemelsnaam nog over een release van een postrockband kon schrijven. Toen kwam het Franse Bruit voorbij en kreeg ik terug inspiratie. Want laat ons eerlijk zijn, op enkele nuances hier en daar, of het inbrengen van instrumenten die je niet zou verwachten, is het stramien bij een postrocknummer nogal duidelijk, vast én alomgekend.
Ondertussen leerde ik een tweede band van bij onze Zuiderburen kennen, m.n. When Waves Collide. De Parijzenaars doen eigenlijk min of meer exact wat Long Distance Calling doen, zij het zonder de sterke invloeden van Pink Floyd. Je kan het evengoed vergelijken met onze eigen The Compleat Angler, maar dan met minder uitgesproken electronica invloeden en geen spoken word passages/fragmenten. Zéér goed gemaakte post rock dus, zonder verrassingen. Dat is echter geen reden om zomaar aan Chasm voorbij te gaan. Daarvoor zijn de nummers te goed gemaakt en te goed gebracht. Songs als The Fallen en Dark Matter zitten zéér goed in elkaar en beschikken over een dynamiek die je meesleurt. Chimera is speels en rustig, een mooie interlude. Afsluiter Stranding laat mogelijks horen dat de band weldegelijk nog op zoek is naar hun geluid: er wordt namelijk duidelijk en toch vrij subtiel met electronica gespeeld/geëxperimenteerd. Cataclysm en Omen hangen daar wat tussenin, maar zijn daarom niet minder interessant.
Dit is muziek die je zowel als achtergrond kan opzetten tijdens een lange autorit, tijdens het werk, tijdens het studeren, ... maar waar je evengoed met de headphones op van kan genieten, van elke nuance, van elke noot. Een debuut waar de mannen zeker fier op mogen zijn. Releasedatum: 23 april 2021
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When Waves Collide is a post-rock band from Paris created in early 2017. Four musicians - Adrien, Romain, Andrea, Timothée - coming from different places and influences, drawn together to invent an instrumental and musical journey. The band is always looking for new sonorities and sonic textures to embark you to landscapes as vast as Nature and as rough as concrete.
"Chasm is the story of a civilization at the edge of collapsing. Human void or geologic fault, one falls into it all hoping for a sign. We follow their journey through the songs, falling with them, surviving cataclysms, praying for some help, interpreting the omens until we strand at the end of the path". "Chasm” is our first album and actually means a lot to us. Beyond the simple stake, we put all our energy and our passion into it. From the very beginning, we wanted to keep a short format that got to the point. We had more songs in reserve but the more the concept behind “Chasm” was defined, the less they found their place. The whole thing was to remain a journey without bad stops. The story behind it is quite dark and we wanted to keep a distance. Fiction is an ideal solution that allows us to tell a universal story without anchoring it too much in reality. Of course, we are inspired by everyday life, but the important thing for us is to leave room for the imagination of the listener. Regarding the music itself, we are following in the footsteps of the EP I but with a more mature sound that we now consider to be our true sound signature. Since our first outing, we have continued to experiment with electronic sounds. It was clear to us that they would have a bigger place on the album. By listening, you can hear their presence intensify over the tracks until "Stranding", a song almost exclusively made up of synthesizers. Recording started as early as 2019, shortly after the EP, but our demands for this new release were high. We then took the time to do it right. This was without counting the global health crisis which did not simplify the process. The first essential step was to surround yourself with the right people to work with on this album. Francesco Giuliano is a long-time friend of our drummer and they started collaborating together on recording the drums in his studio in Naples, where they both come from. It soon became clear that he would be the main sound engineer - mixing and mastering - despite the distance. All the other instruments have been recorded in Paris. We met Adrien, the man behind Naufrage! Studio in Bordeaux, via social media. He is an active member of the post-rock community in France with his association Bordeaux Reverb Club. He suggested that to do the artwork for “Chasm”. We are delighted with the result! As a group, we are particularly attached to keep control of our visual identity. Our drummer, under the nickname N-Draw, has always added his digital touch to our designs. This time, he took the work of Naufrage! Studio as the raw material and magnified it into the final image of the album as you know it. During this time we got to know Francesco and Alex from Antigony Records in Italy (and yes, again!) which has become our label! In retrospect, we can say that this album is a long-term and multi-cultural work, halfway between France and Italy. We are extremely grateful to all the people who made it possible for us to make “Chasm” a reality".
