"The name Etran de L’Aïr translates to “the Stars of the Aïr,” the mountainous region of Northern Niger."
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ETHEREAL.PRESS
Tell us about your project, 'The Machine is burning, and now everyone knows it could happen again...
BRUIT≤
The Machine is burning, and now everyone knows it could happen again...' is our debut album released by Pelagic Records. It follows 'Monolith', our first EP released in 2018. It's an instrumental concept album that also features several classical musicians and can be listened to in one go as if it were a single long track.
ETHEREAL.PRESS
The album has anti-capitalist/industrialist notions while advocating for preserving our planet's natural resources. Does the tracklist follow a grand narrative around this preservation effort?
BRUIT≤
Throughout the album, different subjects are tackled such as the spirit of competition, industrialization, the destruction of our ecosystems etc. In fact, the whole album is based on the concept of an infinite circle which describes a collapse of our civilization, a possible reconstruction which evolves towards a new collapse and so on.
It is the clash between nature and culture and it's a kind of fictional allegorical scenario. The destruction of our planet is a consequence of the industrial revolution driven by liberalism. And as there is no planet B, many people try to develop ideologies opposed to technology and the industrial system. Throughout the album we try to ask questions that lead the listener to reflect on this vast subject.
ETHEREAL.PRESS
Tell us about the album art behind 'The Machine is burning, and now everyone knows it could happen again.
BRUIT≤
The artwork is a photo of the artist BOBY taken one night in front of the Sacré Coeur in Paris. This building is in a way the tomb of the ideology of the 30 000 communards murdered during « la semaine sanglante », it is the tombstone under which are buried the hopes of seeing alternative societies being formed free from the weight of the bourgeois elites. It is a symbol of the worst that culture has done. In the photo you can see a man standing still on the steps of the Sacré Coeur during a storm, he is at the intersection of the most violent things nature and culture have to offer.
ETHEREAL.PRESS
I wanted to get your take on a YouTube comment left by user Cotton Mouth Jo
'Wow. I rly don't know hat to say except wow. No amount of compliments would do this justice. I was planning on going to bed early but I played this and now I am feeling like I swallowed a universe and am on another spectrum of existence. This album is so magnificent one can not simply listen to it once. So here we go again on this epic journey once more. Who needs sleep when you have music so beautiful it makes you question if vibrations of air molecules could induce a drug like euphoric trance.'
Can you describe the feeling it has when your music moves someone in such a profound way?
BRUIT≤
It's hard to describe, I could tell you that it's touching, that it warms the heart but I think above all it makes you feel less lonely. To be 100% honest we don't make music for people, we make it because it's essential for us. It's like an intimate urgency that pushes us to explore ideas, emotions that can't be externalized with words, a bit like a group therapy that we would do through sound.
It's very personal, unfiltered, very raw, so the sensitive connection that is created with certain listeners is very intimate. It's overwhelming, we often find ourselves having very deep discussions with people after the shows, and honestly it makes us feel less alone, useful, better human.
ETHEREAL.PRESS
Can you talk to us about the video attached to your Bandcamp, which depicts the band performing in a cathedral...
BRUIT≤
The video was shot in the autumn of 2020, the day of the planned shooting was the same day as the beginning of the second lockdown. We were all personally going through a lot during this dark year but on top of that we realized that day that it was going to last an indefinite amount of time... To tell the truth we even had to wait until the last moment to know if we had the authorization to shoot despite the lockdown. Finally we all found ourselves in this church in the silent city of Toulouse and we knew that it would be the last time we would play before the next one, without really knowing when the next one would be (almost a year later!).
I think we feel this energy, this intimate necessity to break the silence of the city, this strength of despair that runs through us during this day that was one of the most moving of our lives.
ETHEREAL.PRESS
What's next for BRUIT?
BRUIT≤
We can't wait to hit the road again this fall across Europe, it's really a great pleasure to defend our music live! And if not we started to compose things again, it will take the time that it will take, but it's very exciting to start again from the blank page!