One of the most extraordinary bands of all-time. Listen to their astonishing album “Canopy” so you can understand why we are unable to conceal our euphoria right now. “Canopy” is a MASTERPIECE and easily some of the most awesome, emotion-filled post-rock ever recorded.

Post-Rock Essentials

Requiem stands as one of the rare albums that lives up to its lofty billing – possessing the uncommon ability to balance the siren’s-song quality that draw listeners into its dreamy calm and the sheer force to overwhelm entirely with a single powerful gesture. There is a sense that you have borne witness to something rare and important. It is moments of transcendence such as this that have garnered Silent Whale Becomes A Dream their reputation. In the face of weighty expectations, this is a victorious moment for artist and label alike, a validation of the hyperbolic exclamations of those devoted to Silent Whale prior to this release, and hopefully a launching pad to a wider audience going forward.

Arctic Drones

David Zeidler

Un disco que nos vuelve a dejar con la piel de gallina y prácticamente sin palabras. Un torrente de sentimientos ejecutados através de pasajes en ocasiones intensos y a veces más calmados. Piezas eternas como el océano sonoro que representan.

Keep An Open Mind

La magia sonora de Silent Whale Becomes Aº Dream

Silent Whale Becomes A Dream excelle dans l’art d’étirer de longues nappes progressives, où la mélodie est aussi belle et travaillée que le sont les textures sonores. Les notes s’épanouissent doucement, puis explosent, en même temps que le font les émotions qui affleurent, sensibles et intenses. Les violons se mêlent aux guitares qui oscillent entre dentelle éthérée et vibrations saturées, laissant échapper une fureur aussi saisissante que la délicatesse infinie qui l’a précédée. Chaque mesure mène soigneusement et harmonieusement à la suivante, dans une fluidité parfaite et que l’on aimerait éternelle. Les larmes ne sont jamais loin, mais l’espoir, magnifique, s’ingénie habilement à surgir des profondeurs pour emporter avec lui la nostalgie et le chagrin. Avec « Requiem », Silent Whale Becomes A Dream se rend digne de l’attente qu’il a suscité, et signe non seulement un retour réussi, mais aussi ce qui restera, sans conteste, l’un des plus beaux albums post-rock de cette décennie.

Totoromoon

As the album’s title would suggest, this new work approaches the subject of death with a solemn grandeur and a music that soars with beauty and mystery. “Dies Iræ, Dies Illa” is the full ride! Clocking in at over 17-minutes, it’s an epic track that chronicles the sorrow of loss with the kind of passionate intensity rarely seen in post-modern music today.

Live Eye TV

Iggy Pot

Im Ozean begann das Leben. Und vielleicht wird es auch irgendwann, in ferner Zukunft, eben dort enden. Die Zeit dazwischen wird von der Band, die aus ihrer Anonymität keinen Hehl macht, in epischen Breitwandsound gefasst. Mit seinen vier Tracks, die sich bis in Regionen von knapp 18 Minuten hochwuchten, kommt das Werk dann auch verdammt nah an die unendlich erscheinende Weite und Tiefe der Ozeane heran.

BetreutesProggen

Carsten Agthe

Requiem is a big deal and a follow up that should have come earlier, but seconds after Dies Iræ, Dies Illa, the album’s opening track begins setting the mood, it is becoming clear that it was worth the long wait. As the track moves and develops into a richer and more voluminous arrangement, and while the flow takes the listener away with it into its slow, immersive and transcendental mournfulness, there is not a doubt in the world about how what you’re experiencing comes by one of the most profound acts this prosperous genre has ever seen, and the only thing that really matters is the music and the dark intricacy it brings with it.

Destroy // Exist

ZR

Could the album possibly be large enough, full enough, generous enough to contain such competing ideas, to simultaneously step back from the precipice and to fly?  It is.  The strings, directed by Julien Costa, provide the undercurrent that amplifies the emotions while enhancing the power of the guitars.  Their sound is the first to achieve prominence in “Dies iræ, dies illa”, which serves as an overture to the set.  The title refers to an old requiem mass that was removed from worship as it was deemed “too depressing”!  By co-opting the phrase, the band reclaims it for a new generation; and when the music crashes in like a giant wave in the seventh minute, one thinks, this is not depression, this is grandeur.

A Closer Listen

Richard Allen

Otro de los regresos más esperados durante los últimos años ha sido el de los franceses Silent Whale Becomes A* Dream. Probablemente una de las bandas más interesantes del instrumental europeo, pero con una carrera totalmente misteriosa. No aficionados a dar conciertos ni mostrarse en exceso por redes sociales, nos alegraba enormemente enterarnos del lanzamiento de “Requiem”, 6 años después de su último larga duración. Una oda a la belleza y sencillez sonora. Lo más cercano a los mejores MONO que podríamos tener en Europa.

Keep An Open Mind

Los imprescindibles de 2017

Laten we maar beginnen met het slechte nieuws: we hebben hier een obscuur zwaargewicht in de postrockwereld over het hoofd gezien. Het zou niet mogen en al zeker niet met zo’n pracht van een bandnaam. Hun debuutalbum Canopy uit 2009 zouden wij ondertussen als onmisbaar voor elke postrockliefhebber bestempelen, mijlenver van de spielerei waar soms zoveel andere postrockgrootheden zich aan bezondigen. Deze vier tracks van Requiem zijn nog grootser, imposanter en vooral onbedaarlijk mooi.

Enola Magazine

Nout Van Den Neste

Sí existe algo mejor que el silencio, una excelsa oda a las lágrimas, un exquisito himno al sufrimiento y desesperación que la soledad causa; Requiem es su nombre, y corresponde al segundo lanzamiento de los franceses anónimos de Silent Whale Becomes A° Dream, quienes de manera oficial justamente hoy, acaban de lanzar al mundo un conjunto de profundas piezas capaces de trastocar las fibras más sensibles de quienes se permitan escucharlos, pistas que fungen a la perfección como el reflejo de una eternidad decadente llena de pérdida y de una inevitable nostalgia.

RTMB

Break OS

Des disques dont la beauté aide à faire jaillir puis à apaiser les larmes, et à mettre du baume sur les coeurs meurtris. Une merveille de post-rock orchestral onirique et de toute beauté. Les quatre titres de « Canopy » s’écoutent comme une longue et belle symphonie. Longues nappes mélodiques à la fois atmosphériques et intenses, ils ont ce pouvoir de déployer de riches et puissantes émotions à chaque écoute, sans lassitude et sans ennui. Ici, les guitares scintillent et résonnent, les violons déroulent leurs longues plaintes tandis que les percussions font s’envoler le tout dans une profondeur majestueuse. Intense, émouvant et élégant, cet album est de toute beauté. A écouter et réécouter encore et encore.

Totoromoon

Number 1

Silent Whale Becomes A° Dream “Requiem”

Worldhaspostrock

Best 25 Post-Rock Albums of 2017

Number 4
Silent Whale Becomes A° Dream “Lacrymósa Dies Illa”

Wherepostrockdwells

Top 30 Post-Rock/Metal/Experimental Songs of 2017

Number 10

Silent Whale Becomes A° Dream “Requiem”

Grote kenners van het postrockgenre zijn we niet, maar deze plaat heeft zich op de valreep in onze top 10 opgedrongen. Deze vier nummers tellende dodenmars is een majestueus, uitgekiend epos vol wervelende ritmes, zeezieke gitaren en van wind en zout geërodeerde ambientdrones. Het is een plaat die zonder schaamte voluit voor schoonheid gaat, de luisteraar op de knieën tot genade dwingt. Of het nu de aan slowcore schatplichtige intro en opbouw van “Cor Contritum Quasi Cinis” is, of hoe datzelfde nummer opbouwt en terugvalt zonder explosief einde, maar toch over de hele lijn spannend blijft. Zorgvuldig gemixt, imposant gearrangeerd, golven van ambient afgewisseld door verpletterende gitaarlijnen: zo hypnotiserend en intens was postrock in 2017.

Enola Magazine

Eindejaarslijstje 2017 van Nout Van Den Neste

Silent Whale Becomes A° Dream “Requiem”

When it comes to dark post-rock, it doesn’t get much better than Silent Whale Becomes A° Dream. Their 2017 album Requiem, manifests the band as one of the best in their genre.

NMEX New Music Explorer

Best Post-Rock Albums Of 2017

Un album in cui non c’è niente da perdere,se non sé stessi. Un ascolto che nemmeno ad un muro potrebbe risultare anonimo. È una porta aperta per una stanza di cui voi decidete il contenuto,irrazionalmente. Fatevi guidare dal vento gelido di questa band in un viaggio che sfugge agli occhi indiscreti. Ispirati dal mare, i francesi producono un sound quasi elitario, sulla scia dei God is an Astronaut, solo ed esclusivamente per chi sarà paziente e capace di seguirli, ma soprattutto di seguire sé stesso.

Metaleyes

Giorgio Fichera

Requiem é um disco sólido e ambicioso, que certamente evocará emoções diferentes em cada ouvinte e que é sem dúvida capaz de transmitir a ideia de grandiosidade a que os Silent Whale Becomes A° Dream se tinham proposto neste regresso

Threshold Magazine

João Barata

Requiem is a true statement of modern post-rock. Symphonic, methodical, mournful, deep, poignant, and heartfelt, this new full-length hosts four new tracks showing restraint and abandon. Silent Whale summon lush, echoing atmospheres, which they mollycoddle and raise gently, slowly, with care and patience, until they become their own, full-fledged being: not a human, not a song… but a living thing nonetheless. The symphonic elements only further this, and improve the growing creation. This is a regal album that has no equal.

Can This Even Be Called Music?

Dæv Tremblay

Number 16
Silent Whale Becomes A° Dream “Requiem”

Post-Rock Listener’s Choice

The 50 Best Releases of 2017

Number 1
ALBUM POST-ROCK DE L’ANNÉE
Silent Whale Becomes A° Dream “Requiem”

Totoromoon

Top Post-Rock 2017