Montreal contemporary classical chamber ensemble Esmerine have surprised fans with the surprise release of their long-awaited first album in over five years.
Everything Was Forever Until It Was No More dropped digitally on May 6 via Constellation, with CD and LP versions forthcoming through Secretly Distribution on August 26. It follows 2017's Mechanics of Dominion — one of Exclaim!'s Top 10 Improv and Avant-Garde Albums that year.
Written in co-founding member and cellist Rebecca Foon's converted barn during the summer of 2021, the record is described as one of Esmerine's most restrained, wherein "instrumental densities ebb and flow, melding into each other with gauzy timbral warmth," according to a press release.
With other co-founder and percussionist Bruce Cawdron (Godspeed You! Black Emperor) in tow, the longstanding collective aims to balance myriad opposing forces — melancholy and hope, stillness and vivification, asceticism and romanticism — by weaving Neo-Baroque threads of art rock, minimalism, jazz, pop and various folk traditions.
The group has also released a Geoffrey Bouangé-directed video for soft, minimalistic album track "Fractals for Any Tonality," where we catch a glimpse of a deer and her fawn in a picture of innocence, coated by the falling snow around them.
Watch the video for "Fractals for Any Tonality" below, where you'll also be able to stream the full album.
Everything Was Forever Until It Was No More dropped digitally on May 6 via Constellation, with CD and LP versions forthcoming through Secretly Distribution on August 26. It follows 2017's Mechanics of Dominion — one of Exclaim!'s Top 10 Improv and Avant-Garde Albums that year.
Written in co-founding member and cellist Rebecca Foon's converted barn during the summer of 2021, the record is described as one of Esmerine's most restrained, wherein "instrumental densities ebb and flow, melding into each other with gauzy timbral warmth," according to a press release.
With other co-founder and percussionist Bruce Cawdron (Godspeed You! Black Emperor) in tow, the longstanding collective aims to balance myriad opposing forces — melancholy and hope, stillness and vivification, asceticism and romanticism — by weaving Neo-Baroque threads of art rock, minimalism, jazz, pop and various folk traditions.
The group has also released a Geoffrey Bouangé-directed video for soft, minimalistic album track "Fractals for Any Tonality," where we catch a glimpse of a deer and her fawn in a picture of innocence, coated by the falling snow around them.
Watch the video for "Fractals for Any Tonality" below, where you'll also be able to stream the full album.
