Requiem is the long awaited new album by French post rock band Silent Whale Becomes A° Dream, whom we heard last through their digitally released single, Architeuthis, two years ago, although they have been quite an enigma for many years before that.
Silent Whale Becomes A º Dream is an undervalued well-kept secret, a mysterious entity and a longtime fan favorite among the progressive realm of post rock and avant-garde music. The band has been around since 2004, released its exemplar debut, Canopy, in 2009 and in a way returned to the obscurity where they came from, with the exception of a brief reappearance that was the release of Architeuthis.
Requiem is a big deal and a follow up that should have come earlier, but seconds after Dies Iræ, Dies Illa, the album's opening track begins setting the mood, it is becoming clear that it was worth the long wait. As the track moves and develops into a richer and more voluminous arrangement, and while the flow takes the listener away with it into its slow, immersive and transcendental mournfulness, there is not a doubt in the world about how what you're experiencing comes by one of the most profound acts this prosperous genre has ever seen, and the only thing that really matters is the music and the dark intricacy it brings with it.
In Requiem's dark, wistful and pensive tone, in its four majestic songs that span almost one hour of post rocking grandeur, there is life and struggle and death; the anguish which comes during those, and the peacefulness which befalls before and after them. Requiem does not sound any less of a paradigm of a post rock record, coming by the same band that's given us Canopy, only older, heavier and ripened.
Requiem is out now in digital format via Elusive Sound and on vinyl in 2018.
ZR