BRUIT ≤ – The Age Of Ephemerality

BRUIT ≤’s talent lies in their ability to tell stories without words, and to paint emotion with frequency and noise. “The Age Of Ephemerality” is a tale told through static and shadow, brass and string, guitars and drums. It’s a soundtrack for a future that feels eerily familiar, yet terribly uncertain. 

As I sit here in front of my laptop, with the new BRUIT ≤ album in front of me, there’s an apprehensive air of expectation and a giddy nervousness about listening to, and of course reviewing this latest release, The Age Of Ephemerality. Already renowned for their signature blend of neoclassical arrangements, their great cinematic walls of sound, and their unmistakable and unyielding dynamic tension, the French post-rock ensemble have a lot to live up to, which is of course set by their very own high standards. Their debut, Monolith and the follow up, The machine is burning, and now everyone knows it could happen again changed the post music landscape for the better. So where does a band go after that I hear you wonder! Well why not with The Age Of Ephemerality? Lets take a step into the nebulous with BRUIT ≤‘s latest masterpiece. 

It all begins with Ephemeral, which is a fragile and delicate track, full of texture and sparse notes that fade in and out. It’s almost floating in the space between absence and presence, and then they add this beautiful little acoustic piece at the end to really play with your head and have you second guessing what is to come! That second track, Data opens with a scatter of fractured tones, awash with clicks, glitches, and synthetic murmurs. There’s no melody in the traditional sense, but rather a rhythm and a pulse beating within the static. Strangely enough, every time I hear this track I get a Radiohead, Amnesiac vibe to it, maybe it’s just the experimental aspect to it, but anyway, enough sidetracking!  Data is the sound of information flooding in, overwhelming and disorientating, like staring a hundred screens at once and seeing hidden messages within the flashes! However, in true BRUIT ≤ fashion, clarity comes into view and a wave of brass and string brings us back to reality. 

Progress/Regress echoes Godspeed You! Black Emperor, with its minimalist guitar opening and its slightly positive spirit. Lush, carefree cello strings tiptoe and dance, before a steady wave of harsh distorted melodies come crashing in around you. Layers fold over layers as every instrument joins the cavalcade and what we have is a soul stirring moment of elation and utter euphoria. This is BRUIT ≤ at their finest, and their most recognizable. 

On we go to Technoslavery/Vandalism……and I’m lost for words, I really am. I feel a sense of repetition in my writing as I try to comprehend and understand what is happening to me when I listen to this album. Emotionally I’m beaten and I’m bruised. This track right here is achingly beautiful right from the outset. Melancholic and nostalgic in essence, but with this ever-growing nucleus of positivity hidden within it. A crescendo that will utterly break you and have you shaking your head in astonishment grows and climbs right into your soul. Chaos reigns supreme for a moment and you are in the belly of the beast, and you don’t want to leave! The sheer power that BRUIT ≤ conjure up is breath-taking at times. The haunting chants of a solemn and sobering male choir restores calm and gives you that much needed opportunity to draw breath and sigh. 

The closing track on this opus is The Intoxication Of Power and bloody hell, what a journey it is! From the very first swell of brass and strings the emotion embraces you and slowly pulls into a world that’s as seductive as it is unsettling. It’s dark, atmospheric, and deeply evocative. It’s less a song, and more a psychological wake-up call. BRUIT ≤ don’t just compose music, they conjure up atmospheres and feelings, and this track is a masterclass in mood alchemy. Layer by layer, textures accumulate and come of age, all the time bouncing off fractured percussions and dissonant synths, with the whole thing feeling like it’s about to crack under its own weight. Cometh the ninth minute, cometh a blizzard of haunting strings that swell and wail, almost mournful. It’s powerful and its electrifying, almost like an epiphany, it hits that hard. Once the spoken narrative finally closes the door with the words “don’t let it happen, it depends on you”, what once felt like triumph now feels like decay.   

BRUIT ≤’s talent lies in their ability to tell stories without words, to paint emotion with frequency and noise.  The Age Of Ephemerality is a tale told through static and shadow, brass and string, guitars and drums. It’s a soundtrack for a future that feels eerily familiar, yet terribly uncertain. BRUIT ≤ are an evolution through sound, through noise, through emotion and through instrumentation. Never has a band been so important and so relevant to its art. Splitting genres and blitzing categorization, BRUIT ≤ are everything to everyone who craves change through the power of music. The Age Of Ephemerality is an album for the ages.