With their mesmerising album Consolamentum proving not only to be a stunning piece of music, but also an impressive piece of art in its own right thanks to the exquisite packaging design of Stefan Thanneur, Bordeaux-based art rockers Year of No Light have seen their audience expand considerably, and deservedly so. Alongside the album, the band are also celebrating their twentieth anniversary and, working with the mighty Pelagic Records (The Ocean, Arabrot), they have produced Mnemophobia, a super-deluxe box set featuring the band’s discography (comprising five studio albums, several split EPs and the band’s collaboration with Belgian Composer Dirk Serries live at Roadburn) alongside various extras. It’s a comprehensive offering that truly shows the band’s rare ability to merge art and music, and we were truly glad to take the opportunity to meet with Jerome and Pierre of the band to discuss their continuing evolution.
Despite the intensity of the band’s music, Jerome and Pierre are genial hosts, graciously sharing a lot of detail about Year Of No Light and often digressing to talk about the music that inspired them with great passion and excitement. It makes for a relaxed interview, which covers a great deal of ground in the forty minutes or so we have available.
SonicAbuse:
My first question is to set a little bit of context – you’ve joined forces with Pelagic and, I think, this is probably the perfect record label for you because they’re very keen on art and packaging and making the best possible complete package – so how did you come to be on the label?
Pierre:
That’s a good question. I think that every label we’ve been on, and I guess Jerome will agree with me, had this obsession for beautiful art and that’s a real part of our identity as a band. We always loved… of course the music… but having a beautiful object that symbolises the music.
Working with Pelagic, yeah, we were looking for another label and (as I’m sure you know), nowadays there are not so many labels left. So, we had different opportunities and the best deal was with Pelagic and we were really confident that it would all be fine with them. And we were right! I guess we found the right home for us, and we really appreciate the way that they work and promote the album and so on. We’re very happy with them.
SonicAbuse:
Obviously, they’ve worked with you, not only for the new album, but also for this amazing twentieth anniversary box set. I think that, for you, there must have been a lot of planning to create a box set that’s so beautiful and so involving for your fans. How long did you spend designing that piece of work?
Pierre:
Wow! A long time. It took a lot of energy. We had the pleasure to work with Stefan Thanneur, who also made the cover of Consolamentum. It was quite difficult. I don’t know – it took several months just to go over the technical details. It was really nightmarish and also, in the context of COVID, all the pressing and stuff was delayed.
But yes, we got something great, but the big challenge was to have a kind of cohesion, artistically speaking, with Consolamentum and with the box. It was a huge work, and it was the same for the album – for the artwork – it was a big, big, big work and very intense. But we are really happy with the result because we have great artwork.
I am speaking mostly about Consolamentum now, but I didn’t expect the artwork to look that way, and it’s always a big pleasure when you see it and you never thought about having something like that. Also, we must confess, we came from metal and stuff like this, and we aim to try to change this – to take influence from different inspirations – painting, architecture… brutalism. So, we try to offer some artwork you can play with. It’s very important.
So, yes, we were very lucky to work with Stefan Thanneur. He’s a musician in the band Chaos Echoes also, and he’s a brilliant, brilliant mind. So, yes, it was a lot of work.
SonicAbuse:
It’s really common, I think, in interviews to ask about musical influences, but one of the things I really enjoyed when listening to your music is that it doesn’t sound like you take influence from any particular genre, but rather you seek out atmospheres within bands that you like, so as to create something quite unique to you and quite cinematic rather than genre-based – when you discuss your music as a band and you’re thinking about creating an album, do you have something visual, or some reference point in mind that helps you to play with the same kind of emotion?
Jerome:
I think it’s different for each person in the band. For me, it’s really important to gather something of a vision – I always picture something. But I come from an art background. I studied art before playing music, so there is always a synergy between the visual side and music for me. But it’s not the same for everybody.
Pierre:
Yeah, I totally agree with Jerome. I guess I share some points with him – maybe some painting or literature but to have this kind of mood. That’s really at the core of the band. I don’t know if everybody in the band finds the same mood in the same way, but yes, it’s like sometimes… it sounds a bit philosophical [laughs] and I don’t want to sound like this, but there are some kinds of… it’s like we’re digging the sensitive world and the more we dig with electricity, the more we find the pattern that will bring us the structure of the tracks on the album.
SonicAbuse:
I know that, in the past, you’ve done some live soundtrack work and I think that’s a really interesting approach to making music because you’re driven not by something internal, but by having to react to what’s happening on screen and, at the same time, even pre-empt what’s happening on screen to create the mood for the audience. Do you think that, by doing that kind of soundtrack work, you helped to evolve the band to where you are now on record?
Jerome:
Yes, definitely. The work on Vampyr really helped us to find other ways to compose – to slow down and play quiet and all this kind of stuff. It helped to create a really sensitive relationship with pictures, and it really helped us to find a new way to compose.
Pierre:
Yes, there is a before and after to Vampyr. As Jerome said, I have nothing to add… but we learned the art of patience and it is a very impressive exercise to confront yourself and what we aimed to do with Vampyr was not something very narrative, but to try to capture the mood and try to make a kind of a change between our music and this fabulous piece of art. So, definitely, it was a big milestone for us musicians.
SonicAbuse:
For me, that’s kind of what sits at the heart of making pieces of music like Objurgation, which ebb and flow. Rather than traditional song structure, it’s very linear and you travel with the band on a journey, and it feels like that kind of live soundtrack work and the dynamics you get from that are something very important to that style of composition.
Jerome:
Yes, after we lost our singer and when we started to play as a six-piece, it was important to dig into new musical forms and that’s why we left behind some more hardcore sludge metal kind of stuff – to find a form that is more… you can compare it to a symphony. So, yes, it’s linear.
Pierre:
Yes, we’d rather focus on narration than typical, classical song structures, even though sometimes you may find some “pop” patterns in there, but that’s our own private joke! But Jerome is right, it’s really hard to make a beautiful pop song and we really respect it, and we deform it also. But yes, I agree with Jerome.
SonicAbuse:
I think losing a singer, or in general creating instrumental music is very challenging. We’re so used, as listeners, to there being a vocalist who draws the attention. So, once you step outside that – with bands like Mogwai or Red Sparowes – you have to create the world for the listener purely with the music and that can be very challenging for a composer.
Jerome:
Yes, it depends from which musical backdrop you come. It’s quite easy to work with verse and chorus and there is some kind of art in composing in this way. But when you have this big piece of music, you may have some element, which you find ten minutes after the beginning of the song and in a different form… it’s a different process.
It’s not, you know, make a beautiful verse and a beautiful chorus and a beautiful bridge. You have these three elements, and you deal with it. And there is really powerful stuff done with this really small material. But, with larger pieces of music, it’s more like Vertigo – you’re like “oh shit! Where do I go…” [Pierre interrupts]
Pierre:
“What have I done? Why am I playing this??”
But then, sometimes it’s so easy! Sometimes you are quite sure of the way. But yes, it’s a big work to finalise… to work on details and the recording. That’s what sometimes helps us to decide what to keep or not. It’s always an adventure, yes. Sometimes we can go very quickly to have a song and sometimes, my god, we can spend several… not years, but months to find a good end and not to repeat ourselves and to find a good pattern and how all the different instruments fit together. It’s architectural and I like something like that sometimes.
Jerome:
I think we started as punk rockers. We were not good instrumentalists. So, it was really naïve at first. But, in fact, I still use that. I start like a punk rocker, but I know I want to dig into music. We keep some blind spot for our old days, so we have stuff to explore again.
SonicAbuse:
What you said there – starting out as punk rockers and then developing over the years is actually one of the ways that bands can evolve and continue to be interesting, because you’re always challenging your own musical ability, so you come to the next song, and you have the idea in your head and then you have to think how to play it. It doesn’t come naturally at first and then it becomes, in itself, really interesting as part of the compositional process.
Jerome:
Yes, for me it’s why I still love to play in that band. The window is still open. It’s an open, collective project, so there is still stuff to find and maybe more than ever in fact.
Pierre:
Yes, I agree with Jerome. Yes, we came from punk and hardcore. We love Fugazi, Minor Threat and Discord – the way to conceive music and a label that is with humility, and I think we still have this sort of punk rock vibe but, as Jerome said, we evolved and there’s also a need for sublimation. We live in a shitty world, and when I play music, I like to put the amp and drone into it. The older I get, the less I can support the singer. Not generally, but for us, I guess – it’s impossible – and that’s also the big strength of instrumental music, where you can put everything, you have – love, hate… everything – into a long, long, long sonic landscape.
But perhaps there’s a similar energy in yelling into a mic and playing a seven-second song.
Jerome:
When we practice, there is always twenty minutes where we do just stupid punk rock songs. In our minds, we are about to practice a ten-minute song of trance music… so… [imitates ferocious punk barrage] that kind of thing is important also!
Pierre:
Maybe we will compose a twenty-minute D-beat song! I don’t know!
SonicAbuse:
It’s interesting, a lot of guitarists anyway tend to think about the guitar (and particularly solos) as mimicking the human voice – the cry of a bent note is the wail of a singer – so it’s interesting, and you can put all your emotion into the guitar in so many different ways, so you don’t necessarily have to have the voice there to create the same sense of feelings.
Jerome:
Yeah, it’s very important. The electric guitar is an amazing instrument. You can really mimic some human noise; some different stuff by playing with… matter. You know, bands like My Bloody Valentine, or Sonic Youth, or Swans or Glenn Branca. It’s a way to take electric guitar and play it like you paint. I love this way to use guitar. Using effects and the way you attack… the way you pick the strings. It can impact and change with big amplification.
So, these are all tools. The guitar, effects, big amplification – and you can tell a lot of stories with these elements. It’s really challenging and it’s just super-cool! Maybe it’s the way we are still punk rockers. A punk rocker doesn’t really play guitar, but they build a world, so this is the lesson that punk rock gives us as musicians. Fugazi is a good example because they’re really free in their structure and they don’t use a lot of effects, but they use these four instruments – drum, bass and two guitars – with freedom. It’s a great lesson.
Pierre:
Nothing to add – it’s a bit like guitars are like brushes and we’re trying to paint. Yes, I know, it’s a bit… OK [laughs]
Jerome:
You know, you can paint with six people also – this is what we’re making.
Pierre
Sometimes it’s a challenge to be honest!
SonicAbuse:
You mentioned a whole bunch of my favourite bands. I think when I was young, taking a bunch of paperclips and hanging them off my strings to get the sounds Sonic Youth got on albums like Experimental Jet Set trash and No Star and it comes back to those ideas of experimenting, playing, taking drills to the strings and all that kind of stuff. So, yeah, using a guitar as a brush makes sense and, sometimes, it just sounds like you’ve stuck a drill in a guitar, so you know… it’s fun to try!
Pierre:
Yeah – Sonic Youth – that’s true! We have tried to approach our art in that sort of way and sometimes, as Jerome says… It’s why we tried to work on the recording of the album, and it came out brilliantly, I think. Sometimes, when you’re listening late at night on headphones, you don’t know what you’re hearing. Is it music? Is it matter? Is it a sonic matter? And we like that kind of Sonic interzone where you don’t really know if it’s black metal or some abstract music or some psychedelic stuff. I think that’s something we’ll try to develop in the future.
Jerome:
All the production process is like being in a laboratory. You use fewer instruments, then you compose, you play live, and you get your song. But, after, the way you record and the way you treat the sound, this is a really important process. Going to the studio is really expensive, but we got the chance to work with unique engineers and we can, within this time, experiment and it’s a really important process to us. I think if we can’t have this process, we can’t release an album, it would be too frustrating.
SonicAbuse:
It’s very exciting being in the studio, there’s always something really magical about it… especially when you have a band like yours where there are so many years. I imagine a big part of the challenge is deciding which elements to foreground at any given point. I mean, ego goes out the window – you have to serve the song and bring up the elements that are working at that time. So, it’s exciting, but it’s also challenging – like a sonic jigsaw puzzle.
Pierre:
Yeah, and that’s why this time we were really working before going into the studio. The object was to play as live as possible, to have the kind of warm and organic songs… and then to have a very proper first take, and it was a challenge to be honest but, when you’ve got this very proper basis, you can really think about an artistic production – what type of dynamics and what kind of instruments should be analysed or down tuned. And that’s what we were very, very happy with on this album. The previous one was much more difficult to record, and it was kind of a bad experience for some of us. I mean, we like the record, it’s not a problem, but for us, I guess, if we had to make a new album and we have to work differently and try to be as ready as possible for the studio.
And, of course, I really enjoy what you said about the ego being out. This is what I like in this band, we are six and like this orbital entity. Sometimes this band divorce you. You lose mental health, and you wonder “why am I playing in this fucking band?” But, when it works, it’s like a beautiful ship. When that beautiful ship enters the harbour and there is no wind, it’s great; but when there is a little storm, and everything is flying it can be difficult. But it’s an experience and I’ll always come back to this concept – for us, it’s a matter of sonic devotion and sublimation and we need to try to survive our day-to-day life by electricity and angst and guitar.
SonicAbuse:
For me, that’s the most important thing for me in the music I love, whether it’s Swans or Sonic Youth or classical music or even pop songs – they one thing I want from any record is that it’ll take me on a journey, and that’s what I enjoyed about Consolamentum, it flows beautifully, and I think it’s something that stays with you for a long time because of that.
Jerome:
I think we have this in common. This affinity with records. When we were young, we would get these records just get lost in the sound. I remember listening to Loveless (My Bloody Valentine) with my parents when I was sixteen and it was the first time I listened to this album and just watching my parents in the car and being completely… [he sort of fades into the past at this point] they didn’t like it [laughs] but I was in the car, thinking it was so good. It was perfect. So, maybe it’s why I like to play music and if people can take something from music like that it’s great and I feel really thankful for that.
Pierre:
Yes, it’s really rewarding. I guess we share the same mind set. I remember, I like to be surprised and stuff with music. I’d buy an LP and not be very convinced but then, the more you listen, the more it takes hold. So, you listen in phases, and you discover all sorts of elements and the more you listen, the more you discover and the more you like it and that’s the magic of music. And I remember when I was young, really young… twelve maybe… I discovered Forest of Equilibrium by Cathedral and I didn’t know what to expect. That was the first time. I was really into role playing games and stuff and I really enjoyed the cover [laughs] and I remember my face hearing the first minute of this band, because I had no idea about the music. I don’t know what I was expecting, something aggressive I guess, and the record came on and I was like “what the fuck?” That was the first time that time began to collapse, and I was in a lot of dimensions, and it changed my life. But that’s what it’s great to discover and having relationships with music.
SonicAbuse:
That goes back to what we were saying about your artwork and what you did with Stefan. It’s very exciting, even for me now, to find records where the first thing that captivates you is the cover. There are a lot of records in my collection that I bought over the years, just looking at the cover and thinking “nothing with that cover could suck!” So, you buy it, take it home and you’re just really hopeful it’s not going to be some shitty, generic band or something. It’s really exciting and it makes music so much cooler.
Pierre:
Yeah, we did the same as you! I remember that Forest of Equilibrium is a typical example – I didn’t know what to expect, but that kind of artwork has something that the music can’t be shitty. But once again, it can be a challenge, after all these years, to aim to be original without being out of subject. It’s not so easy, and that’s why we’re so lucky to work with Stefan and we made a real process. You know, we proceed in steps and what kind of inspiration we share and how all this inspiration can fit into a global representation of the band.
And there was a real holistic point of view, if you work with Stefan, which is great. But if you want to change a small, small, small detail of the artwork, you have to change everything and that’s a challenge. It’s a wall. Everything is important, and also taking into account that it’s an LP and there was this very big reflection, and we’re very happy with the results. Because the big issue was just to have a kind of fancy metal cover and stuff like this… OK, I like… I’m very old school. I like black metal, 90s covers… but it’s not for us and the more time passes, the more we (even if we don’t like to admit it) our brain is a bit restrained by our habits and that’s what we want to avoid this trap with our cover.
SonicAbuse
I know you’ve got loads of festivals booked, predominantly going into next year, including Damnation…
Jerome:
Yes, but of course we don’t know the conditions of going to a festival. For us, we have no certainty and if we can’t go to Damnation, we’ll be really sad of course. It’s always great to playing the UK and we haven’t played there for almost five years – it’s a long time.
Pierre:
It depends on the situation. We have the Delta variant nearby us and it’s going everywhere, so I don’t know how it will work if we have to be in quarantine first and after. We’ll see. Fingers crossed – we’ve started to get vaccine, but we need more information. We would love to do everything that we can do, even invade England… like Napoleon [laughs] Um, no!
Jerome:
We’re very much excited and it will be a real fucking… fucking disappointment not to be there.
SonicAbuse:
When you have music that is so much its own world, how do you feel about presenting it to a crowd that’s non-partisan? Do you take a different approach, or do you go for the same kind of show that you would do at your own headline event?
Jerome:
We always try to do the same show with the same energy, but it depends on the stage. On a festival line up, it’s not always easy because you’re using wedge monitors and the echo of the bass drum can be difficult. We’re more into being comfortable on stage to make a good show than have a conscious ness of the crowd. So, maybe it’s better like that, because it’s weird to play with a lot of people in front of you, so maybe that’s why we play in the dark – so we can’t see!
Pierre:
I remember, we were talking about Vampyr, and we played this black metal festival in Germany… there was a black metal band playing after us, so you can imagine the mood – black metallers were everywhere and we’re there with Vampyr, so we were like “OK, let’s go!” and, honestly, I like situations like that, and it actually went really well. It means the metal scene is very supportive to us. It was the first time we played a very, very “true” metal festival, and it was fine. So, we are very happy. We have also opened for Gorgoroth, and it was very funny also. It was in Belgium, and it went really well.
SonicAbuse:
Damnation is one of the most open festivals in the UK and you get everything from post-rock to full-on black metal. It’s a great festival and I really hope you will be able to play there.
Jerome:
The first time we were the, it was amazing. I like the way it’s inside – that’s really crazy! In fact, I think the only big indoor festivals we have done were inside the UK. I don’t know if it’s the weather!!!
SonicAbuse
The weather in the UK for festivals is inevitably mud… lots and lots of mud.
Pierre:
Yes, no one needs that – you’re destroying the stage; the sound guy’s mad; you’re destroying the van with your shoes… you’re right, inside may be better.
