French instrumental experimentalists BRUIT ≤ announce their second full-length album The Age Of Ephemerality, along with its first track and video for “Ephemeral“. The Age Of Ephemerality is set for release on the 25th of April via Pelagic.
A philosophical, poetic and political reflection on our insatiable fascination with technology, a dependence as reverential as it is increasingly alienating and exploitative, The Age Of Ephemerality is a seismic collision of old and new, of sounds organic and electric, with the trailblazing four-piece capturing the resultant symphony in all its chaotic, confrontational glory.
The album’s opener and lead single “Ephemeral”, starts with a rousing classical motif that makes up the first minute before being summarily obliterated by pummeling half time drums and a white noise wall of sound that proves BRUIT ≤ are on razor-sharp form.
The accompanying video, shot and edited by Clara Griot, documents the recording of the album, from two recording studios, time spent in La Soulane in the heart of the Pyrénées and an incredible two-week session in the old Gesu church in Toulouse. It shows the technological eras confront each other in a sonic choreography where a modular synthesizer, a 150-year-old organ, a classical ensemble and a rock band co-exist.
Rising from the smouldering remains of various French major label pop bands in 2016,
BRUIT ≤ \ˈbrü-ē\ [French, literally, noise] assembled with the desire to escape the confines of the ‘big business’ music industries and return to creation as an artistic process unadulterated by commercial constraints or expectations.
A cautionary sonic exploration of society’s deference to the algorithm; The Age Of Ephemerality will not be available on major international streaming platforms. Much like the rest of the band’s discography, the album reinforces the collective’s staunch boycott of Spotify; a response to the platform’s consistently diminishing artist payout policies as well as billionaire CEO Daniel Ek’s recent investment in the arms trade.
Written in the mountains and recorded in a church, the album is BRUIT ≤ experimenting with capturing the sound of physical space as if it were an instrument in its own right; as something that can never be artificially generated or digitally replicated.
What do you think of this one?
