Hidden Shoal Recordings are on a mission. The Australian label are busy enhancing minds, widening musical consciousness, opening ears, and taking us beyond the sometimes all too comfortably familiar. Okay, I'll stop waffling, but they definitely do provide some damned good music, full stop.
A few weeks back I delighted to the sounds of Sankt Otten, a German experimental band. Now, they bring us a band from France. Without any doubt at all, they have come up with another sensational find.
Beautiful Lunar Landscape’s E.P. Alone In This Dark Romantic Night is no exception to that rule, but is an exception all the same. The four track trip rock release represents a stunning debut by the band. Flowing from intensity to delicacy one moment and from vibrant peaks to spell binding ambiance the next, this is a visual journey across a beautiful landscape, whether lunar or otherwise.
Beautiful Lunar Landscape are from Bordeaux on the Atlantic coast of France. They produce a pulsating, breath-taking, imaginative, sound-scape topped with haunting vocals from both Ben Ling and Laureline Roux-Eymery, blending together with a smooth subtlety that is perfectly placed within the music.
Yes, it’s experimental but there is also a crafted precision, a sense of purpose in expression, and a definite direction. There is a desire to take you along on the journey with them. On that road you visit some powerful images in your mind. This is coming from a reviewer that consumes nothing more potent than red wine these days, but such is the power of this stunning debut.
Clocking in at 25 minutes, Alone In This Dark Romantic Night tantalizingly opens all sorts of possibilities. It leaves you desperately seeking out more. Some would describe sections as shoegazing, synth rock. Some of it is. However, it can also be explained with phrases like powerfully mesmeric, expansive, deeply haunting, intensely satisfying, and highly imaginative ambient music, delivered at its finest.
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