French act Le Seul Elément is a one-man outfit by someone who wants to stay incognito, because his Music has ‘an air of danger […] that seems to come from a ghost or some other force out of this world, as an abstract shadow-play translated to music’. My first idea was: yeah, whatever… Yet still, some mysticism; I’ve always liked that, so why not giving this project a chance?
And actually, it was especially because of the label that I was quite interested. Flemish ConSouling Sounds have never, truly never disappointed me, so why should they do so now anyway? They have nothing but highly qualitative bands / projects on their roster, so I did wonder what this French one-man project would be all about. Actually the guy behind it tries ‘to make an alliance of two important things […]: beauty and power’. Or as he explains: ‘when the music is evolving, when it grows, when strength comes to transform the music in pure violence, my sadness transforms. I try to describe this process […] into sounds’.
More specific: Meradiam lasts for forty eight minutes and it combines elements from different types of Music that, in one way or another, perfectly fit together in a natural symbiosis (isn’t that a trademark for most ConSouling Sounds’ projects anyway?... – but that’s another issue).
Opening song 01 03 47 slowly builds up from a nihilistic and distant wall of noisy minimalism to an industrialized piece of mesmerizing introspection (translated via spooky spheres and cold ambience). The second track, called Jancee, is totally different, for starting with a fast, quasi fingerspitzen-play on piano (with atmospheric synth lines at the background), eventually joined by haunting vocal lines, turning the whole towards fabulous Post-Rock / Atmospheric Alternative / Ambient dimensions of the most hypnotic, yet at the same time extravert inner self. The vocal lines used on that track stand for the main voices on this album, and they are an important part of Le Seul Element’s aural creations, for adding the instrumental result with a specific mysterious, haunting, mesmerizing, transcendental atmosphere. But there’s more because of the (instrumental / structural) variety. Not only are the Post-Rock passages carrying the whole. This album also includes excerpts of mystic Post-Metal, Atmospheric Doom and Neo-Classical Ambient. Sometimes the whole turns the alternative way (cf. a track like Tehee, with quite some sludgy and dark-metalized elements), then again it dwells within dimensions of Industrial, Ambient (cf. the top-piece Essist) or even noisy Neo-Folk / Neo-Classical (cf. the title track) or even militaristic-noisy extremities (the introduction on Essist is a great example).
The bio we did receive refers to, for example, Mogwai, thisquietarmy, Syndrome, Aidan Baker and several others. I would like to add the likes of Nights Amore, Nucleus Torn or Votum, though this isn’t but an open-minded reference. Actually, it’s about all this stuff, and none either… Got it?
FYI: once again, the vinyl-edition will be released by Wolves And Vibrancy Records & Prügelprinz Records, though it be in an edition of 300 copies only (black vinyl, 140 gram, with cardboard sleeve and booklet), while the CD-version, by our mostly honored ConSouling Sounds, comes in an edition of 750 copies.