ambient / post rock
Travelling can have serious effects on people, so it seems. Back in 2010, Sébastien Touraton made a trip to Iceland. He was so impressed by the breathtaking beauty of Sigur Ros' and Olafur Arnalds' country that, once back in France, he decided to create a piano-driven ambient project.
That project is heklAa and it's highly influenced by classical music, post rock, ambient and movie scores. Perhaps, taking all of the aforementioned information in consideration, it might be no surprise that at first listen heklAa sounds like something between Olafur Arnalds and Sigur Ros, but better and I'll tell you why.
The EP contains four tracks, opening with the title song '14971'. Yes, "song". There are vocals on this record. People who know me, know how I feel about vocals, especially in post rock related music. I don't like them in Sigur Ros, I didn't like them on Arnalds' 'For Now I Am Winter' album but I love them here. Sébastien Touraton did a fantastic job with these. Furthermore, and then I'll stop comparing this EP to those two acts, heklAa delivers a darker sound, one that comes close to acts like Le Seul Element or Blackfilm. And that I do like.
'The Sky Below' is probably my favorite track on this EP, but once again that is not an easy choice to make. I just think this is an outstanding set of ambient compositions, sometimes introvert and calm, sometimes epic and dramatic. And I am damn sure that several tears will flow with the breathtaking 'the road has been leading to you, always'. So yeps, I recommend this one to all fans of slow, emotional and immersive music because this is a perfect example of how great that kind of music can become...
Serge
That project is heklAa and it's highly influenced by classical music, post rock, ambient and movie scores. Perhaps, taking all of the aforementioned information in consideration, it might be no surprise that at first listen heklAa sounds like something between Olafur Arnalds and Sigur Ros, but better and I'll tell you why.
The EP contains four tracks, opening with the title song '14971'. Yes, "song". There are vocals on this record. People who know me, know how I feel about vocals, especially in post rock related music. I don't like them in Sigur Ros, I didn't like them on Arnalds' 'For Now I Am Winter' album but I love them here. Sébastien Touraton did a fantastic job with these. Furthermore, and then I'll stop comparing this EP to those two acts, heklAa delivers a darker sound, one that comes close to acts like Le Seul Element or Blackfilm. And that I do like.
'The Sky Below' is probably my favorite track on this EP, but once again that is not an easy choice to make. I just think this is an outstanding set of ambient compositions, sometimes introvert and calm, sometimes epic and dramatic. And I am damn sure that several tears will flow with the breathtaking 'the road has been leading to you, always'. So yeps, I recommend this one to all fans of slow, emotional and immersive music because this is a perfect example of how great that kind of music can become...
Serge
