CONFUSIONS (2 vinyls)

Description

Forced into involuntary leave by a global pandemic, L'Éclair threw themselves wholeheartedly into recording a new album. Until now, their studio sessions had been very short, never exceeding a few days, with the idea of creating projects very close to the spirit of their live concerts, recorded live on tape. This time, the band took their time. Over four sessions spread across nine months with their sound engineer and manager Benoît Erard, the talented team gave themselves the means to create an album with a more deliberate production. Time and perspective allowed the band to go further in the arrangement and structures of the tracks, while delivering a substantial album: 12 tracks and almost an hour of music. This process greatly influenced the music, which is both more varied and, above all, more precise. The result of this long-term work is called 'Confusions'. This project reflects the band's obsession with groove in all its forms. Combining club sounds, psychedelic grooves, rhythmic frenzies, and long ambient breaths, the album offers a perspective on the band's versatility while maintaining overall coherence. Organic yet produced, dancing and ethereal, impulsive and cerebral, melancholic and radiant, 'Confusions' oscillates between several moods without ever scattering. The band's guiding figures are never far away: CAN, Tangerine Dream, Piero Umiliani. But throughout the project, other influences emerge: British, ranging from late 1980s Madchester to the experiments of Aphex Twin or Boards of Canada, but also more hip-hop, with a compositional approach akin to the sampling of geniuses like Madlib, J Dilla, MF Doom, or even Timbaland. Finally, touches of house and dub complete the picture, as if to recall the band's club and sound system ties. The album opens with 'P+R', a track halfway between Liquid Liquid's New York and a CAN concert in Detroit. Like 'Timbacrack' or 'Clubless', this track, conceived as a psychedelic 'banger', sets the tone for the album: the modern yet organic, synthetic yet lively aspect, is one of the pillars of the band's sonic identity. "Verso", like "Whirlwind", effortlessly recalls the 'library' sounds dear to the band. Cinematic, groovy, but also edgy, these tracks weave the narrative fabric of the album with rhythm and tension. A central piece of the work, "Cosmologies," a sprawling track moving from an anxious 'trap rock' to a spiritual 'kraut rock' through an almost new age and neoclassical section, testifies to the album's desire for fusion while avoiding the pitfall of being a catch-all. "Concorde" and its synths, sometimes G-Funk or boogie, touch on more hip-hop sounds while keeping the track in the cinematic spirit dear to the band. The record also includes more underground and experimental moments, such as "Transmission I Étoile" and "Pangea," as well as ethereal floating moments like "Uscita" and "Transmission II." Despite the diverse universes evoked throughout the album, the permanence of rhythm and sonic cohesion act as a common thread.