BRUIT ≤ announce new album and release new track ‘Ephemeral’

French instrumental experimentalists BRUIT ≤ announced details of their second full-length album The Age Of Ephemerality, set for release on 25th of April via Pelagic. Along with the announcement, they have shared a first track and video ‘Ephemeral‘.

Watch the video for ‘Ephemeral‘ here: https://youtu.be/AIrb5oTlj0I

The accompanying video, shot and edited by Clara Griot, documents the recording of the album, from two recording studios, time spent in La Soulane in the heart of the Pyrénées and an incredible two-week session in the old Gesu church in Toulouse. It shows the technological eras confront each other in a sonic choreography where a modular synthesizer, a 150-year-old organ, a classical ensemble and a rock band co-exist.

Rising from the smouldering remains of various French major label pop bands in 2016, BRUIT ≤ \ˈbrü-ē\ [French, literally, noise] assembled with the desire to escape the confines of the ‘big business’ music industries and return to creation as an artistic process unadulterated by commercial constraints or expectations.

Initially considered a studio project only, 2018’s Monolith EP (Elusive Sound) saw the four musicians behind BRUIT ≤ unleash their expansive and intensely emotive hybrid of ambient electronica, modern classical and panoramic post-rock onto the world with a now legendary 20-date tour across France and Belgium. Bolstered by the phenomenal response, the Toulouse-based band returned to their studio, reinvigorated to begin work on their debut full-length, The machine is burning and now everyone knows it could happen again.

Digitally released to widespread critical acclaim and subsequently physically released through Pelagic Records in 2021, The machine is burning… propelled BRUIT ≤ across Europe, playing over 50 shows through 12 countries, performing on prestigious festival stages including Roadburn, ArcTanGent, Amplifest, Dunk! and Damnation and touring alongside genre luminaries such as Amenra and EZ3kiel. Having earned a fearsome reputation as a live act, BRUIT ≤ subsequently closed this chapter of the band with the musical refuge of 2023’s contemplative and delicate Apologie du temps perdu vol.1 EP (Pelagic Records) before downing tools entirely to tour the world as the backing band for legendary electronic act M83.

Wanting to reconnect with the shoegaze ambience of his critically acclaimed 2003 Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts and 2005 Before The Dawn Heals Us albums, Anthony Gonzalez, the musical visionary behind M83, integrated BRUIT ≤ into his live band and also entrusted the musical direction of the tour to Clément Libes, the band’s bassist. It was during this tour that the initial sketches of the band’s next record began to take shape. Both emboldened and overwhelmed by the experience, the quartet eventually fled the endless turmoil of the road and retreated to the heights of the Pyrénées mountains where they finished five new songs, which were then recorded in an 160-year old church in their city of Toulouse. This collection of songs is The Age Of Ephemerality, a full-length album that finds the band remaining steadfast as ever in their sonic roots and creative principles whilst also pushing their musical horizons to the bleeding edge.

A cautionary sonic exploration of society’s deference to the algorithm; The Age Of Ephemerality will not be available on major international streaming platforms. Much like the rest of the band’s discography, the album reinforces the collective’s staunch boycott of Spotify; a response to the platform’s consistently diminishing artist payout policies as well as billionaire CEO Daniel Ek’s recent investment in the arms trade. Written in the mountains and recorded in a church, the album is BRUIT ≤ experimenting with capturing the sound of physical space as if it were an instrument in its own right; as something that can never be artificially generated or digitally replicated.

Pre-orders are now available: https://orcd.co/bruit

Track-list

Side A
1. Ephemeral
2. Data
3. Progress / Regress

Side B
4. Techno-Slavery / Vandalism
5. The Intoxication Of Power

Amplifying contemporary instruments, tools and tech in a building hundreds of years old; synths, drums, strings, an eight-strong electric guitar orchestra made up of friends and collaborators from the Toulouse scene (Slift, Plebian Grandstand, Mourir, Zelezna, Orne) and the original, 1864 church organ collide in an incendiary aural statement that spurns society’s reliance on technocratic tendencies in favour of celebrating togetherness, the power of community and the creative inspiration of the moment.

Afterwards, the band spent weeks between Toulouse’s Studio Capitole and their own Studio La Taniere, experimenting with an array of configurations and arrangements that push the idea of post-production to its limits. By layering contrasting compositional methods from different technological eras on top of a sprawling collection of sounds old and new, BRUIT ≤ deliver an astounding sonic choreography that forces the listener to confront the inequalities and injustices behind the casual convenience of the modern day music industries.

Just as BRUIT ≤ seek to expose how desperate things have become, The Age of Ephemerality serves as a harrowing yet profound reminder that the only way to break algorithmic malaise and see real change is to resist, to do it ourselves.

BRUIT ≤ are:
Théophile Antolinos – Guitars, Banjo, Tapes, Soundscapes
Clément Libes – Bass, Baritone Guitars, Bass VI, Violin, Viola, Organ, Piano, Modular Synth, Programming
Luc Blanchot – Cello, Programming, Synth
Julien Aoufi – Drums