The fact that the renewed collaboration between French experimental musician and composer Pierre Bastien and Dutch autodidact sound artist Michel Banabila leans towards somnambulant sonic spheres is already hinted at by the title of their second album: Nuits Sans Nuit – nights without night. It’s a fitting name for sounds suspended between worlds, at times lulling and comforting, at others deeply melancholic or quietly unsettling.
In many ways, the album feels like a soundtrack to that hypnagogic state between wakefulness and sleep, where thoughts often carry a dark undertone, snapping the restless awake once more before drifting towards the realm of dreams. Sonically, noisy textures rub up against blues references and other music of longing. »The most desperate songs are the most beautiful,« says Bastien, a PhD in literature, quoting the Romantic writer Alfred de Musset on the occasion of the album’s release. Bastien is well known for constructing mechanical instruments, building his own orchestra under the name Mecanium. These contraptions make an appearance here too. In working with Banabila, the pair rely on the synergy that comes from creative back-and-forth: Banabila focuses on atmosphere, while Bastien responds with his unmistakable collection of instruments.
Related Features
