Alcest

Alcest formed in 2000 in Bagnols-sur-Cèze, in the Gard department of southern France, initially as the solo project of multi-instrumentalist Stéphane "Neige" Paut. He was quickly joined by guitarist Ludovic "Aegnor" Faure and bassist Argoth, and the trio issued the four-track demo Tristesse hivernale on Drakkar Productions in 2001 — raw black metal steeped in Burzum and early Ulver, drenched in wintry desolation. Aegnor contributed the central riff of La Forêt de Cristal before he and Argoth departed, leaving Neige to continue alone. Aegnor went on to found Peste Noire, a split that neatly maps the aesthetic fault line running through French extreme music in those years.

The May 2005 EP Le secret marked the decisive break: instead of raw black metal frost, Neige layered tremolo-picked guitar walls, reverb-soaked clean passages and an almost disembodied vocal delivery. Le secret is now widely cited as the origin point of blackgaze, the intersection of black metal and shoegaze that Alcest reached years before Deafheaven or Wolves in the Throne Room. After eight years as a solo project, Neige signed to Bavaria's Prophecy Productions in March 2007 — a label whose roster of atmospheric outsiders like Empyrium and Tenhi offered the right home. The debut Souvenirs d'un autre monde (8 August 2007) was described by Pitchfork as "not black metal at all" and compared to My Bloody Valentine and Jesu.

In 2009 drummer Jean "Winterhalter" Deflandre, known from Les Discrets, joined and ended the one-man era. Écailles de lune (26 March 2010) compressed the wall of sound between blastbeat outbursts and Slowdive-esque melancholy; AllMusic praised its "compelling fusion". With Les Voyages de l'âme (6 January 2012) and the deliberately metal-free Shelter (17 January 2014, produced by Birgir Jón Birgisson with Amiina strings and a Neil Halstead guest spot), the band tested the genre's outer limits. Kodama (30 September 2016), shaped by Hayao Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke, returned to blackgaze and charted at No. 15 in Germany.

The move to Nuclear Blast for Spiritual Instinct (25 October 2019) signalled arrival in metal's international first division: No. 12 in Germany, No. 6 on the US Heatseekers chart. After the pandemic came Les Chants de l'aurore (21 June 2024), their most recent album, preceded by the single L'Envol. Live, Alcest have toured since 2010 with guitarist Pierre "Zero" Corson and bassist Indria Saray, appearing at German festivals including Party.San Open Air and Full Force.

Discography

2007 - Souvenirs d'un autre monde (Prophecy Productions)
2010 - Écailles de lune (Prophecy Productions)
2012 - Les Voyages de l'âme (Prophecy Productions)
2014 - Shelter (Prophecy Productions)
2016 - Kodama (Prophecy Productions)
2019 - Spiritual Instinct (Nuclear Blast)
2024 - Les Chants de l'aurore (Nuclear Blast)

Important EPs

2005 - Le secret (Drakkar Productions; reissued 2011 via Prophecy Productions)
2012 - BBC Live Session (Prophecy Productions)
2019 - Protection EP (Nuclear Blast)