Feu Follet - La for​ê​t oubli​é​e / MC

File Under:

wave-psych

Although it is already the second full length within six months, Feu Follet, hailing from Nancy, France, can still be considered a new project. Yet it is already one with a very clear vision. "La forêt oubliée” (the lost forest) represents the heart and soul of its creator and only band member, Alban Blaising. The nature photographer merges his love for animals, the woods, the mysterious, film scores, wave music and atmospheric genres like shoegaze and dream pop into a highly coherent album that, at the same time, defies the boundaries of the genres mentioned. It is accompanied by a haunting 20-page comic drawn by Blaising himself and covers all 11 tracks. The story? A boy discovers a mysterious tombstone while playing in an ancient forest, which eventually sets a series of strange events in motion: animals disappear into nothing, hunters can no longer kill, hikers hear spectral voices and see spooky lights. Attracted by the headstone, the boy keeps returning until he suddenly disappears. Nowhere to be found by people desperately searching the woods for him, the boy makes a scary encounter with a skeletal creature that seems to take possession of him more and more. 
 What makes the background story so important and this album so fascinating is how well it all blends together. Your inner eye shows a film full of darkness, moments of light, drama, childhood, horror, innocence, paranoia and beauty. The first track serves as a teaser, it’s the entrance into the woods and all its offerings. When the boy enters the scene you can almost hear his footsteps in the grass and his chuckling echoing from the trees. When he disappears, the music becomes bleaker, in parts claustrophobic – here the comic shows him crying underground sitting on a pile of skulls. Captivating, disturbing and fascinating.