Kodama (album)
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| Studio album by Alcest | |||||
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Publication |
September 30, 2016 |
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admission |
January 2016 - April 2016 |
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| Label (s) | Prophecy Productions | ||||
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Format (s) |
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Title (number) |
6 |
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running time |
42 min 12 sec |
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Guest musicians:
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Alcest, Benoît Roux |
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Studio (s) |
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Kodama ( Japanese for " tree spirit " or " echo " ) is the fifth studio album by the French Blackgaze band Alcest . It was released on September 30, 2016 via the German music label Prophecy Productions .
The album represents a musical return to Blackgaze, after Neige had processed great influences of Dream Pop in his music on the previous album Shelter . Kodama is a concept album that describes the confrontation of the natural with the man-made world. Neige was inspired by the anime film Princess Mononoke by the Japanese illustrator Hayao Miyazaki .
Kodama is also the first album on which Indria Saray can be heard as bassist , although he has been working with Neige since 2010. Like its predecessor, the album made it to the international charts. It rose to number 15 in Germany and for the first time to number 62 in the Swiss charts . The band also made chart entries in both Belgian album charts, in Wallonia and Flanders .
Kodama was released as a regular CD in digipak with six tracks and as a book with two CDs and a bonus track, as well as on vinyl record and download. Kodama has a total game length of 42 minutes and 12 seconds or 48 minutes and 18 seconds. As in all previous Alcest works, the lyrics are in French .
Origin and inspiration
production
The recording work for Kodama took several months. Alcest was in the process of recording the album from January 2016 to April of the same year. The writing work for the album already took almost three years, so that after the recordings of the fourth album Shelter , the musicians began to work on material for their fifth album, which would later be called Kodama.
While Shelter in Iceland was recorded with the Sigur Rós musician Jón Þór Birgisson , the musicians opted for the studio recordings of Kodama in France and with Benoît Roux, who had previously worked with Alcest on the albums Écailles de Lune and Souvenirs d'un autre monde had worked to work together.
Musical influences and lyrical inspiration
Neige was very influenced by Japanese mythology and culture on Kodama , hence the name of the album. In an interview with Moritz Grütz from Metal1.info , Niege replied to the question about the idea behind the album title that he saw [Neige] with Alcest from the view of nature as a connection with his personal feelings and his spirituality as inspiration and hence the name is appropriate. Since Kodama can also mean "echo" in Japan, he said in the same interview that the album also echoes the musicians' past and therefore forms a nice metaphor . However, according to Neige, there is no reference to the record cover, as the album tells a different story.
The anime film Princess Mononoke by the Japanese illustrator Hayao Miyazaki served as a source of inspiration . Neige says the album describes the conflict between the natural and the man-made world. He also stated that he likes the character San in the film because she represents one of the two worlds: She is a human, but who was raised by the animal gods in the forest. Neige can identify well with the character because he has similar feelings. He also describes the way of life of the people in Japan as impressive, but above all the contrasts between the modern world on the one hand and the tradition-conscious and spiritual life on the other. Alcest's two trips to Japan also flowed into the album. The group played acoustic concerts in Japanese temples. The terrorist attacks in Paris in November 2015 and the attack on Charlie Hebdo also provided further inspiration, for example for the album cover.
Musically, Alcest was influenced and inspired by a variety of artists, including Grimes ' album Visions , Tool's last two albums - Lateralus and 10,000 Days -, Dinosaur Jr. , The Smashing Pumpkins , Cocteau Twins , The Cure , Explosions in the Sky and Sonic Youth .
Record cover
The record cover was made by Fortifem. Neige asked him to create a special artwork for each song on the album. The singer was planning an anime- style record cover . Fortifem was inspired by the Japanese draftsman Takato Yamamoto when creating the illustrations . Neige counts himself as a big fan of Yamamoto's art.
Track list
| # | title | composer | length | Remarks |
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| 1. | Kodama ("tree spirit" or "echo") | Running out | 9:07 | with Kathrine Shepard |
| 2. | Éclosion ("hatching") | Running out | 8:54 | |
| 3. | Je suis d'ailleurs ("I live somewhere else") | Running out | 7:22 | |
| 4th | Untouched ("Untouched") | Running out | 5:12 | |
| 5. | Oiseaux de proie ("Birds of Prey") | Running out | 7:50 | |
| 6th | onyx | Running out | 3:51 | |
| 7th | Notre sang et nos pensées ("Our blood and our thoughts") | Running out | 6:06 | Bonus song on the deluxe version |
promotion
Concert tours
To the first advertising make for Kodama toured Alcest together with the Japanese post-rock band Mono between 27 October and 3 December 2016 Europe . The concert tour started at Beatpol in Dresden and ended after stops in the United Kingdom , Switzerland , Slovenia , Austria , France , Italy , the Netherlands , Sweden , Denmark , Belgium , Norway , Poland , Hungary and Slovakia with a performance at Club Rockstadt in Brașov , Romania . This was followed by a concert tour through North America , primarily in the United States and Canada with The Body and Creepers in the opening act. The tour took place between January 19 and February 19, 2017.
From March 27th to May 7th 2017 the group played concerts in Eastern Europe , Southern Europe , Asia and Australia . The group played in Greece , Turkey , Israel , Russia , Belarus , Ukraine , Japan , the People's Republic of China , Hong Kong , New Zealand and Australia before the group returned to Central Europe for the summer festival. Alcest has been announced for the Resurrection Fest , the Graspop Metal Meeting , the Hellfest , the Dour Festival and the Rockharz Open Air .
At the end of 2017 Alcest completed another extensive European tour accompanied by the band Anathema . This concert tour also went through Finland , Estonia , Bulgaria , the Czech Republic and Luxembourg . The Optimist Tour started on September 23, 2017 in Belfast , Northern Ireland and ended on November 18, 2017 in Luxembourg , Luxembourg. Alcest played for the first time in the summer of 2018 on the French branch of the Download Festival in Paris. In June the duo played their first concert tour through Latin America ; in July Alcest appears for the first time in India as part of the Bangalore Open Air . Another tour followed in autumn through several Central European countries, where Kodama was played in full.
Alcest declared the tour cycle for Kodama over after their concert tour through North America at the end of 2018
Song publications
On August 4, 2016, the first single called Oiseaux de proie was officially released along with an interview via the US magazine Vice . At the end of August, a second single, Je suis d'ailleurs, was released.
reception
Commercial win
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Chart positions Explanation of the data |
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Kodama entered the German album charts as the second album after Shelter in 2014 , where it reached number 15 and lasted for a week. The album also reached the Swiss album charts for the first time . There the album landed at number 62 and, like in Germany, stayed in the charts for a week. In addition, Kodama reached entries in the Belgian charts , which is divided into the regions of Wallonia and Flanders .
Kodama missed a listing in the official album charts of the United States , but instead rose to number 8 on the Heatseekers charts and also made entries in the independent albums charts , the hard rock charts and the top rock albums charts , all of which were driven by the Music magazine Billboard to be determined. According to the Metal by Numbers column of the online portal Metalinsider.net , the album was sold 1,750 times in the United States within the first week of sales .
Reviews
| Professional reviews | |
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| Averages | |
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| Metacritic | 87% |
| Reviews | |
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| Allmusic |
  
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| Exclaim! |
 
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| Metal Hammer (UK) |
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| Intro | Without rating |
| Powermetal.de |
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| Laut.de |
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| Metal Hammer (DE) |
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| Plattentests.de |
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| Whiskey-soda.de |
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Kodama received mostly positive reviews from the trade press. At Metacritic , it received an 87 percent rating based on five English-language reviews from the music press. This value means that the album has achieved worldwide success.
English language reviews
Tom Jurek wrote that Alcest finally left metal behind with the Shelter released in 2014 to make room for dreamy indie pop . On Kodama, according to Jurek, the musicians have found their love for heavier sounds again. The title-giving opener of the album, Kodama , merges the music of the Shoegaze with the comprehensive sound of Neige's guitar playing and the wonderful vocals of Kathrine Shepard, while Éclosion is reminiscent of the Black Metal of earlier days. Adam Nizam from the Canadian Exclaim! wrote that the Kodama duo had returned to their musical roots of black metal, post-rock and shoegaze after the musicians left them on Shelter . With Kodama, the group has taken a step in the right direction compared to the duo's earlier works. Choosing Japanese culture as the musical starting point for the album provides material for a unique musical journey, even if it was too short on Kodama, according to Nizam. Luke Morton from the British edition of Metal Hammer was visibly enthusiastic about Kodama, even if groups like Deafheaven and Ghost Bath , who are also described as belonging to the same genre, perform harder guns.
German-language reviews
Alex Klug from the online music portal Laut.de writes that Alcest have returned to their musical roots on Kodama and are constantly searching for sonic perfection. The groups try to combine their song structures, described as tame, that the group delivered to Shelter with well-known musical influences. According to Klug, this challenge was mastered with flying colors on Kodama. The music is very reminiscent of various post-rock bands such as Wolves in the Throne Room . He comes to the conclusion that the album is ideal for autumn evenings with chai latte and Bukowski reading. Nevertheless, Neige and Winterhalter would have to work their way back as an innovative band. Kathrin Riedl wrote for the German-language edition of Metal Hammer that the French with the somewhat original Niege and his definition of music manage to win old fans as new ones for his music. Alcest succeeds on Kodama tendencies in both directions, whereby the "gently flowing, never boring melodies" formed the "spherical basis". Valentin Erning from the music magazine Intro confirmed Riedl's opinion that the duo combined the music from Shelter on Kodama with the unmistakable tonality of the earlier works. Erning wrote that Kodama had become “an album made from one piece” and described the work as “an otherworldly sound atlas full of enchanted melodies, gently lapped by delicate distortion , which finally dawns in warm drones.”
Florian Zandt Germany Visions wrote that the black metal earlier days, only the screaming vocals Neiges and blast beats of drumming in the plays Oiseaux de proie and Je suis d'ailleurs again find in the background of the actual sound structures. So Alcest sounds on Kodama like the Screamo - Post-Rock -Vermenger Envy as a mixture of Wolves In the Throne Room and Deafheaven . Not only do Neige deal with the confrontation between nature and culture, which was influenced by the film Princess Mononoke , but also take up the short story The Outsider by horror author HP Lovecraft in the play Je suis d'ailleurs . Zandt called Alcest's music a hybrid of post-rock, shoegaze and even post-hardcore . Markus Bellmann from Plattentests.de wrote that Alcest needed to turn away from Black Metal in 2014, only to find it again two years later and to incorporate it more powerfully than ever before into the overall concept of music. Henrik Beeke from Ox-Fanzine describes Alcest on Kodama as a "shoegazing version of The Cure ", with Sigur Rós also being mentioned as a musical influence. He writes that the genre term Blackgaze no longer applies to Alcest, despite the subliminal use of melancholy .
According to Tobias Dahs from Powermetal.de , Kodama has become an album that can be seen as a link between the musical past and present. The songs are described as “wonderful” and “dreamy”, “which enable the listener to leave reality completely behind for a good hour.” Kodama was received a little less euphorically at Whiskey-soda.de . It says there that the album would start with the classic elements of post-rock and be reminiscent of Anathema . The critic came to the conclusion that it was a good thing that it was now possible to purchase individual pieces from Internet providers. It is said that newer Alcest fans would buy the album blindly; The reviewer only recommends the song Oiseau de Proie to fans of the first hour , as it is reminiscent of Grift and Uada .
Awards
| year | Award | category | For | result |
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| 2016 | Kerrang's Albums of the Year | Album of the year | Kodama | 49th place |
| According to the metal album of 2016 | Album of the year | 10th place |
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Moritz Grütz: Metal1.info : Interview with Neige von Alcest
- ↑ a b c Kim Kelly: Vice : Alcest Continue Chasing Perfection with a Stunning Japanese-Influenced New Album, 'Kodama'
- ↑ Tom O'Boyle: Metal Hammer : How terror attacks and spiritualism inspired the new Alcest album
- ↑ Cheryl Prime: Scene Point Black : Interviews: Alcest
- ↑ Scott Munro: Metal Hammer : Alcest, Mono in co-headline Euro tour
- ↑ Andrew Sacher: Brooklyn Vegan : Alcest announce 2017 North American tour with The Body and Creepers
- ↑ Yugong Yishan : The Beijinger : Alcest "Kodama" 2017 China tour
- ^ The Obelisk : Alcest Announce Australia / New Zealand Tour Dates
- ↑ Metal.de presents: The Optimist - Europe Tour 2017
- ↑ Scott Munro: Metal Hammer : Anathema premiere new track Springfield
- ↑ Allaccess.com.ar : Alcest South American Tour 2018
- ↑ Rolling Stone India : Alcest, Overkill, Immolation and More Set For Bangalore Open Air 2018
- ↑ Dominik Boehmer: NEWS: Alcest Announce Full Kodama European Tour For September. Itdjents.com, June 19, 2018, archived from the original on June 22, 2018 ; accessed on December 31, 2018 .
- ↑ Bram Teitelman: Alcest Ends 'Kodama' Touring Cycle By Playing First US Prophecy Fest. Billboard , October 19, 2018, accessed October 20, 2018 .
- ↑ Michael Nelson: Stereogum : Alcest - “Je Suis D'Ailleurs”
- ↑ a b Chart tracking: DE - CH
- ↑ Chart tracking: US
- ^ Matt Brown: Metal Insider : Metal By Numbers 10/13: What new sorcery is this?
- ↑ a b Metacritic : Alcest - Kodama evaluation
- ↑ a b Rating: Alcest - Kodama review
- ↑ a b Rating: Alcest - Kodama review
- ↑ a b Rating: Alcest - Kodama review
- ↑ a b Valentin Erning: Alcest - Kodama criticism. Intro , September 26, 2016, archived from the original on April 10, 2017 ; accessed on December 31, 2018 .
- ↑ a b Rating: Alcest - Kodama review
- ↑ a b Rating: Alcest - Kodama review
- ↑ a b Rating: Alcest - Kodama review
- ↑ a b Rating: Alcest - Kodama review
- ↑ a b The Wendigo: Alcest - Kodama criticism. Whiskey-soda.de, 2016, archived from the original on April 11, 2017 ; accessed on December 31, 2018 .
- ↑ Florian Zandt: Visions : Alcest - Kodama criticism
- ↑ Henrik Beeke: Ox-Fanzine : Alcest - Kodama criticism
- ↑ Rocklistmusic : Kerrang! Albums of the Year 2016
- ^ Laut.de : The metal albums of the year