Alcest, Emma Ruth Rundle

After making a small stir in the Black Metal underground with their 2005 mini-CD, "Le Secret", ALCEST have left their origins in that scene far behind them. Their music manages to evoke a spring-like atmosphere full of beauty, intense joy and light, but also filled with yearning and nostalgia. It brings to mind memories of the innocence and bliss of a childhood long past as well as impressions of a fantastic fairyland of perfect harmony.

With his application of Slowdive and Yann Tiersen to Burzum, multi-instrumentalist Neige has created a musical concept for himself that is nothing less than revolutionary – and the actual realization of this concept on "Souvenirs d'un autre monde" has made for a peerless landmark. No other title would have done justice to this debut album, as ALCEST's songs really are souvenirs from another world. (read less)
Biography
Alcest is a French band created by Neige in early 2000. He began writing songs on his own but a few months afterwards Argoth (bass) and Famine (lead guitar) joined him and his solo project became a real band. "Tristesse Hivernale" Alcest's first demo which was composed by
Neige and Famine, was released in 2001 by Drakkar Productions. At the time, the band played cold and melodic black metal inspired by the mysterious and melancholic atmospheres of the wintry landscapes. Just
after the release of "Tristesse Hivernale" Alcest turned into a solo project again since Neige decided to change of direction and concept in order to explore more intimate themes.

Alcest is now Neige's testimony of the evanescent visions/memories he had as a child about a fantastic faraway world : a plane of existence bathed in a pearly light, beyond all terrestrial beauties, which could
perhaps be described as a sort of "intermediate stage" ; the soul would rest there between two earthly lives and would for some time be freed of the burden of incarnation. The first chapter of this journey
was "Le Secret" EP, which was released in 2005 by Drakkar Productions.
In 2007, Neige agreed to a contract with the German label Prophecy Productions and released Alcest's debut album "Souvenirs d'un autre monde" the same year. In 2010 the drummer Winterhalter joined the band, Alcest released their second full length "Ecailles De Lune" and
started to perform shows in Europe and U.S.A. with a complete live line-up.

All music/lyrics/artwork are deeply linked to Alcest's concept and aim at depicting that "place" and the ecstatic feelings one can experience there. This project is a real quest, a perpetual wandering through unknown regions, the hope of which is to shed some light on some
mysteries of this esoteric experience.


Emma Ruth Rundle is a Los Angeles-based accomplished guitarist, singer/songwriter and member of Red Sparowes and Marriages. Her first official solo album, Some Heavy Ocean, presents a collection of impassioned, cathartic songs, exorcising the ghosts of one of life's dark detours. Melancholic, but equally hopeful and accessible, the album wears its emotions on its sleeve. One critic described Rundle's voice as "bone-chilling texture filled to the brim with intent", and a better description is difficult to imagine; when paired with her compelling guitar playing, an enduring spirit takes root.

In 2007, Rundle assembled the self-described folkgaze collective, The Nocturnes, for the purpose of performing her work. The following year, she was drafted into the monolithic post-rock supergroup, Red Sparowes. Touring the world playing the Sparowes' epic brand of instrumental heaviosity sparked a fruitful musical connection with fellow Sparowes guitarist, Greg Burns. When that band commenced a well-deserved hiatus in 2011, she and Burns (on the invitation of Russian Circles) instigated a new group, Marriages, who supported Circles in California and then promptly began recording a debut mini-album, Kitsune (subsequently released by Sargent House in 2012). Meanwhile, Rundle and friends as The Nocturnes reconvened briefly in 2011, issuing a full-length album, Aokigahara, while solo she recorded an album of experimental guitar compositions, tentatively made available online.

What followed was a "dark, difficult time", marked by family problems and personal struggles which, though exhausting emotionally, also incubated Rundle's conviction to use their inherent misery as fuel for expression.And so, in 2013, she literally moved into Sargent House's home studio in Echo Park, sequestering herself for two months while writing and recording what would become Some Heavy Ocean. Itself a taxing experience, the process of creating the album was fraught with problems and setbacks that, naturally, served to fortify its unmistakable air of sadness and desperation. Which isn't to say Some Heavy Ocean isn't equally optimistic or compelling. An apt title if ever one existed, the album swells and crashes, waxes and wanes, ebbing and, yes, flowing - the way all great albums do. The songs twist and sway like kelp forests drunk on its amniotic tide.

The album opens with the brief title track, "Some Heavy Ocean", a nebulous back-looped swirl of elements, like a painter steadily mixing their palette into a swelling cacophany of hues. "Shadows of My Name" arrives promptly, an acoustic hymn propelled by Rundle's breathy, quaking voice, recalling classic artists like Bjork and?Sinead O' Connor at their most vulnerable. Emerging from shadow, the track spills open into a symphonic, reverb-tinted soundscape which, once fully envisioned, quickly vanishes. In its place steps "Your Card the Sun", an enigmatic whisper of a song, the brevity of which renders it de facto introduction to the album's next track, us-against-the-world manifesto "Run Forever". Anchored by an infectiously-memorable chorus, the "Run Forever's" timeless, expansive essence suggests Mazzy Star and late-era Swans, which may or may not be accidental. Utilizing Greg Burns' pedal steel, "Haunted Houses" follows a similar path, Rundle imploring the subject of her convictions, "Don't say it's not what you wanted", her sense of disappointment palpable. Side one closes with "Arms I Know So Well", an emotionally-charged appeal for someone to "deliver me from all the evil I do to myself" which, like so much of the album, simply bows out once its point has been made. Nothing on Some Heavy Ocean overstays its welcome. Decidedly more brooding and less percussive, side two opens with "Oh Sarah" followed by "Savage Saint", two subdued tracks punctuated by the string arrangements and additional vocals of Andrea Calderon (who appears elsewhere on the album, always with evocative effect). "We Are All Ghosts" rattles its cage, a thumping, rhythmic treatise on the human condition, before the bleak soundscape of "Living With the Black Dog" signals the album's imminent demise.

Some Heavy Ocean will be available on CD, LP and Download via Sargent House on May 20th, 2014.