Feu Follet - Beneath The Earth / MC

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new-wave-psych

 On Feu Follet’s 3rd album Alban Blaising does something new with the known ingredients of the band from Nancy, France. After two essentially instrumental albums the sole member of the coldwave/synthwave project decided to take the reviewers and bloggers’ advice to heart, to include vocals and lyrics which were written and recorded by the respective artists. 
 Everything is based on the accompanied comic book that works as a prequel to "La forêt oubliée", the second album which was also released as audio/visual experience in 2020: Following a fox, a boy discovers a strange stele deep in the woods, which sets supernatural things in motion. In the end he is possessed by the stele and the ghost of a prehistoric shaman appears. Now, in “Beneath the Earth” Blaising focusses on the fox which goes through a number of classical adventures involving all the creatures you can find on the cover art: giant snakes, mermaids, the grim reaper, evil fish, skeletons... Albain drew his influences from “The Neverending Story”, “Labyrinth”, Jules Verne, Marie Severin, tales, legends – he is invested in nature and animal photography with foxes being one of his favourite subjects. 
 Music-wise, Feu Follet sticks to the cinematographic side of the predecessor album with the guest vocals giving it a more pop/rock approach. Blaising names the “Top Gun” and “Blade Runner” OSTs and concept albums like “Misplaced Childhood” by Marillion while, on the other hand, involving shoegaze arpeggios and a dream pop atmosphere which is supported by the female vocals of Isabelle.B Baumann and Natacha Lubin. In addition, guest vocals by labelmates Vlimmer and XTR HUMAN sprinkle some post-punk vibes on brilliant layers of modular synthesizers which easily keep the album coherent giving it a persisting haunting nature.