Short-hand descriptions of Les Chants Du Hasard have included references to the project as a “French Blackened Orchestral/Operatic Ensemble” and to the music (even more succinctly) as “extreme opera”. Over the course of four albums, the most recent of which was released this past June, the project’s principal protagonist Hazard has found frequently eye-popping and unconventional methods of expressing extreme emotions such as anger, violence, darkness, and despair, with the goal of thoroughly submerging the listener in them.
Hazard has described the latest album, Livre Quart, in these words:
“I created LES CHANTS DU HASARD following a vision of a crawling and ugly opera, in which some light could be found, the same way that [French poet Charles] Baudelaire found beauty in ugliness. This idea has been with me on a daily basis since 2016, when I decided to give it a try and began composing Livre Premier. Livre Quart is the closest I’ve come to realizing this vision.”
As a reminder of what the album brings us, and hopefully to open new ears to its daunting phenomena, today we premiere a video for the record’s opening piece, “Parmi Les Poussières“.
Photo by Cäme Roy De Rat
On the new album, Hazard was accompanied by two operatic singers, the soprano Laura and the tenor Christian, — both of whom play important roles in “Parmi Les Poussières” — and by vocalist Göran Setitus on the song “Les Ombres Vagabondes”.
Look again at the new album’s cover image. The vision it presents is in keeping with the music you’re about to hear, though your mind might have birthed something similar to it simply by reacting to the sounds.
In short: “Parmi Les Poussières” is harrowing and hallucinatory, sinister and shivering, elegant but brazenly monstrous.
Its hallucinatory effects derive in part from the composition’s startling twists and turns, which yield both extravagant instrumental crescendos and sudden diminuendos. The monstrosity lives through Hazard‘s maniacal screams and ravenous roars, but also through the music’s booming cannonades, ominous fanfares, and frenzied strings.
Gothic organ arpeggios create chilling, sinister effects and moments of agony, but in their frenzied ecstasies they also help build the monstrosity, while the operatic voices are at times haunting, at times imperial, and at times seem stricken with terrible fears.
As for the video, it was prepared in a way that makes it seem unearthed from a moldering vault of forgotten silent movies. It was filmed by Alexandre Arn and David Brenner (Gridfailure), and David Brenner also directed and edited it.
Livre Quart was recorded, produced, and engineered by Hazard and mastered by Déhà at Opus Magnum Studio with graphic design by Cäme Roy De Rat. It’s available now on CD, LP and digital formats. For more info, check the links below — and also explore the full album stream we’ve also made available below.
https://leschantsduhasard.bandcamp.com/album/livre-quart
https://www.facebook.com/leschantsduhasard
https://www.instagram.com/hasard_malivore
https://leschantsduhasard.bigcartel.com
https://leschantsduhasard.bandcamp.com
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