Photograph © Ave Tiberius

We will confess something upfront, we don’t generally do music reviews. We will also confess, we are biased, we’ve met koe before and are more than charmed. So please forgive this biased review.

Into the Sky
Noir du’Soleil

Lovely. Haunting. A sweeping post-apocalyptic soundtrack. One thinks of soundscape, of driving away, of starting afresh. One feels hope amongst the swirling danger of the synthesized landscape. There is an intelligence here, and not just because the first edition came sewing within lace.

Nightmare is a gorgeous sci-fi soundscape, the swirling debris of a city under siege with glimpses of crystalline beauty, and singable choruses. Dreams Through Fire may rely too much on screaming choruses, but is so danceable it wins. And Into Clouds is a lovely bit of ambient Frippery, by way of the Cure in Faith mode. This is a record that invites us, inspires us to wander through creator koe’s landscape of factories and abandoned houses where rooms are filled with lush velvet furniture, or cold zinc laboratory tables. Each twist and turn brings us to some new sonic sensation. Lush or chilling.

There is so much happening; from musique concrete to 70’s-80’s Krautrock like Can, or Caberet Voltaire to Gary Newman, to The Birthday Massacre and Alice Mizer. This is a post-apocalyptic cocktail party where all the guest have made it through unscathed, well dressed and well read. You drink something delicious, you dance, you meet the most fascinating people and then you, in some abandoned and baroquely decorated room, fall asleep, waking to find it 4 a.m., the party over and outside a storm is washing in. In a far off room someone is playing a neglected piano and you weep, for nothing has ever sounded more lovely.

Into The Sky has been re-released and features a second disk of remixes by such shining lights as Blood, Mummy Lee, XP8, Ryo Mucha and The Royal Dead.

Contact them here. You must.