Darkwave.ro electro/industrial music magazine | news – reviews – interviews – concerts – festivals – parties

“I would go as far as saying that this is the most personal record since “Als die Liebe starb” The wounds that made me write the lyrics and songs are basically still bleeding” (Thomas Rainer, interview for Goth Times, Jan-27)

Tracklist: “L’Étang Mâlo” * “No Goodbye” * “Absolution” * “Wie Traenen im Regen” * “Empty” * “Demon Be Gone” * “The Heart” * “Banish” * “Why Can’t I Make You Feel” * “Dort draussen” * “Hold Me”

About L’Âme Immortelle – “Momente”:

A moment is the highest form of existence. What is life but a succession of single moments? Painful, beautiful, challenging, rewarding glimpses in the eternal stream of existence. It is these moments which we remember consciously, which we look back upon at the end of our days. And whatever may happen: No one is going to take these memories away from us. On “Momente” (English translation: ‘Moments‘), L’Âme Immortelle immortalize exactly these moments, build darkly shimmering monuments to these essential happenings in life. (source: Resurrection Records)

L’Âme Immortelle – “Wie Traenen im Regen” – Official Video:

L’Âme Immortelle – “Momente” – Viva Music Album Review:

Out tomorrow Jan-27 with Trisol, the much awaited new album from L’Âme Immortelle entitled “Momente” (English: “Moments”) comes after 4 years of absence from the new release section with a vibrant and firm-handed album. We have had news in recent years of Nachtmahr, Persephone, Whispers in the Shadows – to name some of the acts in which L’Âme Immortelle members explore their musical craft – but however grand their respective releases have been, a L’Âme Immortelle release was much awaited and definitely, even before getting to listen to it, one of the highlights of 2012.

“Momente” is reassuringly no different from previous releases from L’Âme Immortelle’s 15-year+ activity if you think of the seriousness with which they adapt to music and are able to transmit their emotions. However, any new album is a development of a previous phase of the existence of a band and definitely a time capsule for emotions that would have otherwise escaped the filter of the heart of listeners. And from this perspective, “Momente”, stands open and proud like a scrapbook of one’s finest emotions, with a new lease of life for a beloved project such as L’Âme Immortelle.

The opening passage, “L’Étang Mâlo” pierces through the fog with a very inspired reading of Théodore de Banville’s homonymous poem, the one which, if you haven’t read, you should, absolutely. Just think of the opening motto of the poem: “Quand le froid de la mort enveloppe cette argile souffrante, où va l’âme immortelle?” (English: “When coldness wraps this suffering clay, Ah! whither strays the immortal mind?”). The reading, accompanied by elegiac music, creates momentum and renders valid the further deployment of the album in this atmosphere of eerie awareness of the duality of life and death. And with the advent of “No Goodbye”, you know you have made a wise choice of listening to this album, and that there is no turning back. With elegant vocals and a very mimetic musical course, the song pushes forward disarming private emotions and a delicacy.

With a plus of beat and with the inherent cadence of the German language, the special feel granted by “Absolution” is at the same time a song you would want to listen in your privacy as well as surrounded by equanimous people in a concert venue.  The feel is preserved by the grandiose “Wie Traenen im Regen”, with its melancholy, liquid state, which is bound to bring you closer to yourself.

The emotional course of the album is further enhanced by “Empty”, the melodic line of which reminds of classical and contemporary alike, brimming with power and eloquence. And as if the first half of the album were not enough, the cavalcade of “Demon Be Gone” adds to the album a varied and thoroughly special flavor. A Viva Music favorite, it keeps close quarters with another favorite, “The Heart”, the yarn of which spins in a both personal and universal time, of emotions comprehensible to all and just to oneself. With a modern Lady of Shallot disposition to resignation and emotional survivalism, “The Heart” charms with its alluring and enticing body of music and lyrical content. And from the same lit side of the moon, “Banish” arises, with its captivating tempo and with the ominous chant of will, freedom, and self-inflicted illusions antagonizing the demons of the past. Opposing the surefire aplomb of “Banish”, the more fluid feeling of “Why Can’t I Make You Feel” stands out, it is the one that comes with unrequited love and spins amorous destinies around imaginary feelings. “Dort draussen” (English: “Out There”) is tempestuous and glorious, and a song we would definitely to see more facets of via remixes and is definitely wishlisted for a live performance. The closing “Hold Me”, the candid and overpowering track that rounds up the feeling of the album, is surely going to linger in your deepest and your most intimate after listening to it for the first time, it follows the rhythm of nothing less than life.

“Momente” is an album that is made of the exact proportions of serenity and love ambitions so as to depict in its various glimpses a very imaginative and true to life collection of feelings with accurate verse and a music you will have no other chance but to fall in love with. Enjoy!

L’Âme Immortelle – Official Website | on Facebook | Discography on Discogs