ASPHYXIUM ZINE

Sunday, December 6, 2020

Full Length Review: Baume "Août Approche" (Independent) by Dave Wolff

Solo Project: Baume
Location: Paris
Country France
Genre: Post black metal
Full length: Août Approche
Format: Digital album, Limited edition digipack, compact disc
Label: Independent
Release date: October 9, 2020
With every EP this project has released since 2018, Baume persists in seeking darker, more outlandish places to draw from. Gaetan Juif’s debut full length dives deeper into experimental rock and post-black metal atmosphere than he previously dared. On "Août Approche" he composes with a myriad of ambient sounds and percussive effects, with guitars and strings in the background, to create a world as romantic as it is unsettling. Juif invents another reality with his songwriting, one that envelops you and makes you curious to experience more of it even as the chills, emptiness and sense of impending desolation fills your body, mind and soul. As those sensations grow richer and more encompassing, you start to suspect what you’re hearing is the effect Juif has been building towards with "Les Années Décapitées", "L'odeur de la lumière" and "Un Calme entre les Tempêtes". I somewhat saw this progression coming from those EPs; however the material is far from predictable as I wasn’t completely prepared from the full effect of these hypnotic soundscapes. If Juif’s purpose is to distance himself from his other projects Cepheide and Rance, he is well on his way to doing so. Baume’s EPs and this full length play like chapters in a novel in which the narrator descends into a madness unheard of by the human race, only to find a kind of cathartic tranquility in the end. His vocals, in the spoken word form, is almost like the narrative describing this descent while his mind is being taken over, almost consumed, by whoever or whatever is guiding him deeper and deeper with each passing moment. The end of the narrative has not come yet, as there are subtler sounds suggesting greater darkness on the horizon. You probably have to listen to every Baume release back to back to appreciate the big picture. What’s most disturbing about this part of the journey is the time the horror takes to ease itself into your being, crawling slowly into your consciousness as opposed to taking it all at once. Dare you find out what Juif has in mind for the next chapter? –Dave Wolff

Lineup:
Gaetan Juif: Vocals, all instruments

Track list:
I. Rien ne Dure
II. Blessures Nuptiales
III. Un Calme entre les Tempêtes
IV. Dans les Mystères de la Dissolution
V. Août Approche



https://aeafanzine.blogspot.com/2018/03/full-length-review-baume-les-annees.html
https://aeafanzine.blogspot.com/2020/01/ep-review-baume-lodeur-de-la-lumiere.html
https://aeafanzine.blogspot.com/2019/11/ep-review-baume-lodeur-de-la-lumiere_2.html
https://aeafanzine.blogspot.com/2020/06/ep-review-baume-un-calme-entre-les.html

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