Alcest

As I work my way, day by day, towards happiness and peace, I find myself gathering music around me that serves as a soundtrack to that journey in much the same way that dark, depressing music served as the soundtrack to my despair. Not that I don't still listen to the dark, depressing stuff. It's great music and sometimes very cathartic. But I also need something that feels the way I feel, something that feels the way I WANT to feel.

Recently, I discovered the band Alcest, a French band. They were pure Black Metal at one point, in the very beginning. Then Neige, the main composer/musician/vocalist turned the band in a new direction. They incorporated elements of Shoegaze and Post-Rock into their sound and, with some much muted Black Metal elements still in place, they began rewriting the musical rulebook. Three albums and an EP later, and I stand in awe.

The concept for the band is fascinating. They reflect Neige's memories of a land he feels he visited when he was a child. The information about the concept as found on the official website is as follows:

"Alcest - that is music from another world, a world that is real, but that exists beyond ours and cannot be grasped by our senses. A world where all appearances - trees, glades, streams - emit a pearly light and where a faraway and celestial music fills the air like sweet perfume. A world inhabited by infinitely benevolent and protective beings of light, communicating in a wordless 'language' directly from one soul to another. A world where the soul knows neither pain nor sickness nor sorrow, but is filled with a deep peace and an ineffable bliss. A world that lies 'before' and 'after,' 'beside' and 'behind' our world and the awareness of which stills mankind's fears of death.

This world is no dream and no fantasy. Neige, the creative mind of Alcest, knows it - he has experienced it and keeps memories of how it revealed itself to him in the form of esoteric experiences in his early life. Alcest is his medium to come to terms with these memories and to share them with others"

I can see this place when I listen to the music, I am transported there. It is stunningly beautiful. There is some melancholy, perhaps. A bit. But it is mostly innocence and beauty. I can't get enough of it.  I have learned that things do not need to be miserable to be good or artistic. They can have an air of childhood wonder and evoke nothing but smiles and maybe tears of joy.

I urge everyone to listen to this song. It is a major key to understanding where I am in my life currently.I dedicate this post and the song to The Tiny Turtle and Mezma, the two people who make me think life truly is beautiful and make me feel like this music does. You two are the best. :)