Aurélien Bachelet

My proposal for the Réminiscences artwork.

I started a small consultation on our WhatsApp group, asking everyone to provide three elements that come to mind when thinking about our album: an emotion, a scene/situation, and an object.
My personal selection: hope – horizon – statue.

• Found Drawings

As you know, these tracks were created from my college demos, recorded in my student bedroom. I have an entire hard drive full of them! Even more, I have digitized lyrics and a few pencil sketches (very few).
I rediscovered two of them, and I remember thinking back then that I might turn them into cover art.

One drawing is of an embracing couple; I had even scribbled a phrase underneath: "you fill my winter heart with happiness." It’s very "me" from that era! I can barely face it now, haha.
The other drawing is of a woman/elf with wings, sitting on her knees in a field of feathers, as if they were stalks of wheat, with mountains in the background.

• Statues

I have always loved statues. The ones you find in parks. They are motionless and tranquil, slumbering there forever while vegetation takes over. It is a powerful symbol of the passage of time, and at the same time, they generally freeze a very specific emotion. In short, I love them.

• Transformation

I asked AI models to transform my drawing. I chose the one of the couple: the woman should be a statue representing hope, with the man embracing her. The statue could even have wings, or her arms reaching toward the sky.
Florent suggested a sunrise as the setting, which is a great idea. Lylou wants an artistic blur. Marine appreciates the statues. It shouldn't look too Gothic or dark because, even though everyone mentioned nostalgia as a recurring feeling throughout the album (and I agree with them), for me, what truly stands out in the music and runs through the subtext are the "élans" : the sudden surges of spirit. The songs have magnificent swells, and certain lyrics carry a powerful hope, calling for emancipation.

The statue represents these frozen feelings, this attachment, the past. Vegetation has colonized it, and times have changed. The man clings to it! But with the sunrise in the background and the sky above, everything around them is alive, calling him to leave it all behind. The statue itself is serene. Her wings could, symbolically, carry her far away. I found that idea very powerful.

We shall see how it turns out.

Between two mixing sessions for the Réminiscences project, a bit of livelooping fun.

I've decided to dedicate my July to mixing. I have two albums to mix: Réminiscences, the album with the students, 8 songs. And my new EP, 6 songs.

I'm starting with Réminiscences. We just finished recording the vocals, and the next and final collective session takes place in a few days. I therefore need a quick mix to determine which tracks might be missing, and then it'll be time for the final mix. I aim to finish by mid-July to then dedicate myself to the new EP.

Several significant challenges with Réminiscences: some tracks are demanding, like Renaissance, clearly the biggest challenge. It's long, ambitious, rich; the vocals are clearly what I'll spend the most time on through the entire album, there are many tracks and takes, and it's what the listener hears first.

To make it sound right, I'm not aiming for perfection but rather atmosphere and sonic immersion. I like it to sound good on headphones, like all my projects. I'm keeping a natural mix, to stay faithful to what we created together. All year I had in mind a sound reminiscent of Anathema's A Fine Day to Exit blended with Lana Del Rey (like 13 Beaches), but once you get to work, the music imposes its own mix and its own atmosphere. I always try to accompany that.

From one student who already heard some excerpts: "Oh yeah, that sounds pro!"

To work!

This isn't the final version. That one will be sung by Lylou, I'll lay down my voice on a verse, then Julie comes in on the chorus. What you hear here is my spontaneous version, the one I felt the sudden urge to sing this week, under the cool breeze of fans while the summer heat settled in heavily.

I didn't sing the chorus. I didn't feel the need to.

The lyrics came together in several stages. An initial seed by Adeline, Lylou and Marine, picked up and reworked by Lylou into a first verse. I wrote two more verses to complete it. Julie brought the final chorus. A true team effort !

The music is melancholic, somewhere between hope and despair.

A long way from the simple demo in my student room back in 2005.

One year ago, on the summer solstice.
I released a first series of remasters, 6 albums, 'Realms'.
It answered my need to refresh the sound of my recordings, to give them a new momentum.
A second part is planned, but in the meantime I took other 'ardent paths': the Réminiscences project and my new EP are the priorities this year.
I'm taking my time, things emerge slowly.

By the way, I'm finally publishing 'full albums' on my YouTube channel. I've never done that since I started creating music. A kind of fear was stopping me, the fear of freezing it on a channel you don't really have control over, you can't edit anything once it's online. It has a knack for annoying me.

But I published "De Lunes et de Chimères" as well as "Quiet Strength". They are among my favorite Realms. One is ideal to listen to in the city while dreaming of wild and mysterious nature (QS), the other IS that wild and mysterious nature (DLedC). At least, that's what I told myself earlier while walking.

The sun is at its peak these days, and it's always a powerful moment for me. I'll probably go experience it by the sea or in the forest. Or maybe even both.