AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: LES CHANTS DU HASARD — “PARMI LES POUSSIÈRES”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Nov 182024
 

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“. Continue reading »

OBSCURITIES – VOLUME VII: WE’RE HALFWAY THERE

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Jul 192024
 

(With the month of June now behind us, Daniel Barkasi returns to NCS with a collection of eight albums released in that month which have drawn his favor.)

No, we’re not about to break out into the chorus of “Livin’ on a Prayer.” Though to be completely transparent, I do enjoy the cheesiness of Bon Jovi. But we’re not talking about New Jersey hair rockers today, beyond this brief mention.

June has been a strange month that we mostly would like to forget. We endured a family tragedy that still has me rattled – things are settling, but loss hurts deeply and tends to linger. Always keep love at the forefront of everything you do, because nobody knows what awaits tomorrow. Words to live by from this rando. I know, I know – we’re about to go over a bunch of extreme metal and we’re talkin’ ‘bout love. Sorry, Van Halen – who also rules. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: LES CHANTS DU HASARD — “LES MILLIERS D’UNE FOIS”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Feb 022022
 

 

Today we return to the spine-tingling musical world of Les Chants du Hasard, a world of imagination and extreme emotion that is simultaneously enthralling and frightening, seemingly connected to milieu of centuries past but may never have existed at all except in dreams — submersive and astonishing dreams that are both seductive and shuddering, haunting and breathtaking, daunting and fierce, and much more.

This solo project of Hazard has so far produced three albums that combine neoclassical bombast, gothic opera, and a blackened metal spirit, presented with lyrics that are astonishingly absorbing. The first two, Livre Premier (2017) and Livre Second (2019), were released by the distinctive I, Voidhanger Productions. The third, Livre Troisième, was self-released in the spring of last year.

From among the eight movements on that most recent album Les Chants du Hasard chose the fifth one — “Les Milliers D’une Fois” — to become the subject of a music video that we’re privileged to premiere today. Continue reading »

AN NCS DOUBLE PREMIERE: LES CHANTS DU HASARD AND MIDNIGHT ODYSSEY

 Metal News, Premieres  No Responses »
Oct 082019
 

 

Meaning no disrespect to all the other labels whose music we’ve become attached to over the years, it must nevertheless be said that the releases of I, Voidhanger Records are like no others. They are incredibly distinctive, often strangely so, and unpredictable in a way that makes each new announcement exciting. Part of this is the result of the richly idiosyncratic yet incisively perceptive tastes of the label’s owner, and part of it is undoubtedly the gravitation in his direction of musical creators who definitely march to the beats of their own drummers and whose creations often expand the mind in unexpected directions.

We are fortunate to present today two premieres that abundantly illustrate the truth of these observations. One comes from the new album by the French band Les Chants du Hasard, and the other from the new album by the Australian band Midnight Odyssey. Both of these are one-man projects whose releases continue to move from one precipice to the next, way up in rarefied air. Both will be released by I, Voidhanger on November 1st.

LES CHANTS DU HASARD: “CHANT VI – LA COURSE”

I became utterly enthralled by Livre Second before ever hearing a note. Simply reading the lyrical narratives of the nine Chants included in the album, each of which is something like a mythic short story or a “fairy tale”, captured me. The stories are mysterious, frightening, haunting, metaphorical, eloquent, and a bit like ghost hands that grasp and won’t let go. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 1): LES CHANTS DU HASARD, KATAVASIA, AKERBELTZ, POLEMOS

 SHADES OF BLACK  4 Responses »
Mar 262017
 

 

I realize I’ve delivered a flood of new music to the site this weekend, so much that I’ve drowned in it, too. Time has run out on my plans to create a gargantuan compilation of new music in a blackened vein, and so I’ve been forced to cut that gargantua into three pieces. Mondays tend to be crazy around here, and so I’m not positive I’ll finish Parts 2 and 3 in time to post them tomorrow, but they will arrive eventually. Let’s begin….

LES CHANTS DU HASARD

Three things drew me into this first song: First, the cover art by Jeff Grimal (above); second, the fact that the album will be released by I, Voidhanger Records (whose selections are always fascinating); and third, this description of the music: “NO GUITARS, NO BASSES, NO DRUMS. ORCHESTRA IS THE NEW BLACK.” Continue reading »