The brightness of day has come to an end. The setting sun lays out a crimson path over the water. Our spirit flies free with the migrating birds effortlessly gliding through the spindrift then swiftly soaring overhead.
There are instances in life when one is left standing on a cliff contemplating what it would be like to leap off the edge. Standing on the edge of a cliff gets you thinking about the different outcomes of a possible situation. It also tests your decisiveness. There is a short moment of time when taking in the view, that our fear of heights is subdued by the desire to fly and perhaps even the sudden belief that we can. The longer we feed on these inconsistent thoughts, the less grounded we become and the more likely it is that we will leap and plunge to our death.
Overlooking an opulent ocean induces a dreamlike state. This is the sea. the sea that returns memories. It is a mirror to our soul. From high up we grasp our fists tightly, fully realising our insignificance, remembering and releasing everything we had chosen to forget. This is where all is laid bare with total abandon. Where we lose our inhibitions, remove the many masks and costumes that have hidden our tears yet failed to dispel our dejection. With no control and no restraint over our emotions, we engage in sincere resignation-filled monologues of acceptance uttering I have lost you, I shall never be with you again, oh my love, oh my heart, my life”.
To the sea, we release everything for it so zealously keeps our secrets. From the sea, we regain the will to rise again.
Elusive Sound
TESTIMONIALS
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
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.La magia sonora de Silent Whale Becomes Aº Dream.
Keep An Open Mind
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 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
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
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?
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
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
Elusive Sound proudly presents “REQUIEM“, the long awaited-return of the legendary French instrumental rock band Silent Whale Becomes A° Dream. “REQUIEM” casts a shadow of haunting loneliness and eternal longing. Silent Whale’s mastery of majestic depth and mesmerizing melodies remains at the forefront of their music, now more expansive than ever. “REQUIEM” is the Whale’s pulsating heart, an outpouring of intense emotions delivered with tremendous might and fury. It is a raging sea, rapidly ascending one moment only to suddenly descend into deep darkness, sorrow, loss and tears. Silent Whale Becomes A° Dream have yet again created an awe-inspiring album. “REQUIEM” has surpassed our greatest expectations.
BIOGRAPHY
“This project is an ode to slowness and to the art of feeling the world, a tribute to rare things, to things that need time to be.
We want to tell you minimalist and deep stories. Stories about the infinite sky over your head, about the harsh ground under your feet. As promising and frightening as the vast ocean right in front of you.”
– Whale
Silent Whale Becomes A° Dream was born in France in 2004 and released a demo in 2006.
In 2009 Silent Whale Becomes A° Dream self-released the album “Canopy “, an unforgettable and awe-inspiring instrumental rock masterpiece of majestic deph consisting of four long atmospheric tracks fueled by orchestral expansiveness and intense melodies that induce powerful emotions and a dreamlike state at every listen. Recorded and mixed by Yannick Tournier and Julien Costa, “Canopy” was later re-released in 2011 in a new CD Edition by Cyril Caucat’s Arbouse Recordings and quickly sold out.
In 2013, a friend of the Whale released “Canopy” on vinyl in collaboration with Arbouse Recordings and Music Fear Satan. Soon after, Arbouse Recordings released a CD featuring remixes by Loscil, Benoit Pioulard, Melodium & Witxes named “Canopy Remixs”.
In 2014, Silent Whale soothed the fears of extinction, briefly resurfacing with a digitally released track named “Architeuthis“.
Though the band remains largely anonymous and enigmatic, the transcendent beauty of their music has lead to cult status with many post-rock enthusiasts worldwide.
After many months of continued correspondence, Silent Whale Becomes A° Dream officially signed with Elusive Sound on 13 February, 2017.
On 26 May, Vivid a post-rock festival confirmed the long awaited return of the band to the stage. On 27 September, Silent Whale Becomes A° Dream announced a new album “Requiem” and its exclusive live world premiere at Vivid a post-rock festival.
On May 11, 2018 Elusive Sound released “Requiem” on CD and on two high quality gatefold vinyl variants, a standard edition named Anima Ascensionis and a deluxe edition named Lux Aeterna which was also available in a stunning booksleeve. All vinyl editions sold out entirely on the day of release.
Silent Whale Becomes A° Dream is Sylvain, Damien, Etienne and Mickael since 2013 and Yannick since 2017.
TRACKLISTING
1. Dies Irae, Dies Illa
2. Cor Contritum Quasi Cinis
3. Recordàre
4. Lacrymósa Dies Illa
CREDITS
Recorded by Silent Whale Becomes A° Dream and Yannick Tournier
String Direction by Julien Costa
Mastered by Jeremy Henry at Villa Mastering
Photography by Christine Drouillard
WORLDWIDE BOOKING ENQUIRIES
