Lista de Bandas Dark Ambient Zalys Reminiscences

Carried by its creator for a bit more than two years, the french project Zalys goes on its merry way tiled with anxious spatial atmospheres of dark and firmly drone colors. After several albums, EPs and collaborations, the latest LP by Zalys is released on the (very) discreet spanish label Arecibo Records, bearing the evocative name of Reminiscences.

The first approach of this album is pretty straightforward : the industrial and cosmic sounds will be quickly associated to the titles of the tracks they picture, and will essentially remind a slow descent into hell for the protagonist we follow since the beginning of M.'s discography, exposed to the pangs of the capricious machinery of its mechanical cocoon of life, and lost in the middle of the interstellar void. But the external point of view we have in the beginning of the listening will gradually turn into an internal point of view, with a clear transition in the track Downfall, where the reverberation of the drones towards the Infinity and the absence of industrial elements translate the drift of a situation a priori inextricable for the character as much as its own prostration.

And so follow schizophrenic titles of numerous points of view, making the border between the psychological state of the survivor and the structural integrity of the spaceship more and more blurry ; as in Industrial Dementia, where we won't be able to tell with certainty that it is the ship who's slowly dying or the hero who's losing its marks and is victim of visual and aural hallucinations. Leaving as usual a doubt concerning the outcome of the events, Zalys closes the album with a dark but relatively open track, already eyeing on the most likely follow-up of the protagonist's adventures.

So it's here that the most notable interest of this album lies on, because its concrete first approach of the plot happening aboard the shuttle changes at the rhythm of the listening sessions, and it seems each time more and more obvious that Zalys seeks, through the mechanical difficulties lived in Reminiscences, to show the progression of the state of mind of the character, condemned for now to solitude, isolation and uncertainty, and only able to hang on to unclear memories from a happier but too distant past.

Echoes towards the Infinity or oblivion of oneself in Downfall ? General breakdown or mental fractures in System Failure ? Are we talking about the last pieces of humanity in the moral sense of the word or the human species in The Last Remains Of Humanity ? The ambivalence of the titles proves to be the backbone of this release, and its interpretation will only depend on you, but the two layers of reading are both valid.

Far more directed towards claustrophobic dark atmospheres than space ambient of wide field of view for this CD, Zalys doesn't forget her spatial roots and unclear melodic impetus thanks to unfathomable drones emulating the darkness and the Infinity of the universe surrounding us, and the transient appearances of dissonant notes. Just to prove I'm not telling stupid things, the track Reminiscence and its elastic and a bit warmer sounds will allude to the hero hanging on to vague memories of a past era of his life, searching to momentarily forget about the situation out of control he's living ; but above all, that piece will remind the oldest works of the artist, a way to confirm the evolution of the project without denying its origins and the whole story around which the different releases orbit.

Reminiscences should be listened to in several occasions in order to grasp all its meanings, and even if knowing Zalys' background helps to understand the details within her compositions, it won't be necessary to already enjoy the more tangible message bathing in dark ambient and looking towards the stars, but preferably staying close to black holes.