Vision Éternel
Vision Éternel is a Canadian ambient and shoegaze band based in Montreal, Quebec. The band was formed in the winter of 2007 by guitarist Alexandre Julien, while experimenting with various guitar effects during a studio recording session. Over the course of its first year, the band had several other members, before Alexandre Julien ultimately decided to continue Vision Éternel alone. Some of the artists and musicians who have participated in or collaborated with Vision Éternel over the years include members of Mutiny Within, Priestess, An Albatross, Hacride, Boize, Eliminator, Mad Parish, Soufferance, Cara Neir, Beyond the Dune Sea, Citadel Swamp and sister-project Vision Lunar. The band's name is pronounced like Vision Eternal in English. The purpose of the name's original spelling is purely for aesthetics.
The band is known for its concept albums. Recurring themes center around infatuation, abandonment, emptiness, heartbreak, loneliness, isolation, depression, melancholia, nostalgia and nihilism. Because of his dissatisfaction being labeled as an ambient, dark ambient or post-rock band, Alexandre Julien ultimately coined a new term to describe Vision Éternel's sound: melogaze. The new word allows for a connection between the style of music that is played and the dramatic themes that are represented. The band is also known for portraying a bygone era of Montreal, depicting the city as an Anglophone metropolis prior to the Quiet Revolution of the 1960's. Part of this image is recreated in videos and pictures which feature Alexandre Julien wearing fedora hats and turned-up overcoats, an image he credits to his obsession with classic films, especially film noirs (and neo-noirs), expressionism and dramas. Directors such as Alfred Hitchcock, Douglas Sirk and Jean-Pierre Melville have been cited as major influences for Vision Éternel.
Over its ten-year span, Vision Éternel has released five extended plays; Seul Dans L'obsession in 2007, Un Automne En Solitude in 2008, Abondance De Périls in 2010, The Last Great Torch Song in 2012, and Echoes From Forgotten Hearts in 2015. The first two EPs were released through Mortification Records, while Abridged Pause Recordings has handled the distribution of the three most recent albums. In 2009, a Japanese-exclusive compilation was released by Frozen Veins Records, entitled An Anthology Of Past Misfortunes, which compiled all of the material released by Mortification Records, in addition to unreleased b-sides and a poster. The band has also released three music videos for Love Within Narcosis, Season In Absence and Pièce No. Trois. A retrospective boxed set has been announced for 2017.
History
Formation and Seul Dans L'obsession (2007)
Vision Éternel was formed in Edison, New Jersey, USA, in January 2007 by Canadian-born guitarist Alexandre Julien, while experimenting with effects at his home studio. Early on, Alexandre Julien was influenced to compose music by his uncle Stephane Fania who founded and performed in the Montreal heavy metal band Boize. Initially, Vision Éternel was part of the Triskalyon collective; a group of bands and musicians with common beliefs who shared band members and had their own vanity record label, Mortification Records. Triskalyon also included future members of French progressive metal band Hacride, which later signed to French record label Listenable Records and Norwegian record label Indie Recordings; and members of A Forest Of Stars, which later signed to German record label Prophecy Productions. Vision Éternel was immediately signed to Mortification Records and was invited to participate in the upcoming various artists compilation album Triskalyon Promo Pack.
Vision Éternel’s debut extended play, Seul Dans L’obsession, was released less than a month later, on February 14, 2007. The record was a concept album, purposely released on Saint Valentine's Day, covering the various phases of a heartbreak: from love at first sight to emotional abandonment, denial, melancholia and finally narcissistic withdrawal. Seul Dans L'obsession was promoted with a music video for the single Love Within Narcosis which premiered on YouTube. The music video was filmed in Edison, New Jersey and featured scenes that reflected the expressionist artwork of the album, tying into the concept. A second single was released in the summer of 2007 for Love Within Isolation, which helped Vision Éternel peak on the independent Myspace Music Top Artists charts. Vision Éternel reached No. 6 on the Shoegaze chart, No. 21 on the Ambient chart and No. 52 on the Experimental chart.
Expanding the band and relocation (2007-2008)
In the summer of 2007, Vision Éternel's line-up expanded. Former Triskalyon guitarist Philip Altobelli joined the band and worked on several songs. After his departure from Vision Éternel, Philip Altobelli studied classical guitar at Kean University in Union County, New Jersey and became a music teacher. Alexandre Julien also briefly jammed with Brandon Jacobs that summer, who simultaneously played in the progressive/melodic death metal band Mutiny Within. But the New Jersey metal band was gaining interest from several major metal record labels and Mutiny Within eventually signed with Roadrunner Records, forcing Brandon Jacobs to dedicate himself to only one band. In August, Alexandre Julien moved back to his native country and relocated Vision Éternel to Montreal, Quebec, Canada, where the band is still located as of 2017.
In Canada, Vision Éterenl found new band members. In late 2007, guitarist and vocalist Josh McConnell joined for a brief period. Josh McConnell's input would have brought Vision Éternel to a completely different style, had his schedule not interfered with his other bands, heavy metal act Mad Parish and the Iron Maiden tribute, Brand New World. A similar collaboration occurred with RCA Records band Priestess when bassist Mike Dyball had to pull out to dedicate his time to composing Priestess' sophomore album Prior to the Fire.
In January 2008, Vision Éternel was joined by Nidal Mourad on acoustic rhythm guitar and Adam Kennedy on lead electric guitar. The band was then entirely composed of Montreal newcomers: Alexandre Julien, who had only recently moved back to the city after growing up in New Jersey, though he was originally born on the West Island; Nidal Mourad, who had grown up in Slave Lake, Alberta where he fronted the metalcore band Natesment; and Adam Kennedy, who was from Canada's capital region in Ottawa, Ontario, where he had dabbled in hard rock, hip-hop and electronic music, performing under the names AK & Lord V and Orpheus. Under this partnership, Vision Éternel evolved from an ambient project into a full post-rock and indie rock band. Nidal Mourad left the band in early February to become a successful DJ, performing as Ziko Ghost. Adam Kennedy remained with Vision Éternel for some time but he eventually left to establish himself as a multi-instrumentalist producer and audio engineer. He has since played in Beyond the Dune Sea, 1993, Acid Cross, Owl Eyes Project and Wake the Wolf.
Un Automne En Solitude and An Anthology Of Past Misfortunes (2008-2009)
In March 2008, Alexandre Julien opted to continue Vision Éternel as a solo project and released the second extended play, Un Automne En Solitude. Vision Éternel's sophomore release had been entirely recorded the summer prior in 2007 while in New Jersey, only months after the release of Seul Dans L'obsession. But the album had been indefinitely shelved when finding band members became a priority. Un Automne En Solitude was released on March 14, 2008, through Mortification Records and was a direct sequel to the debut EP. The story picked up following the same heartbreak and incorporated the theme from Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 motion picture Vertigo, where "man meets woman, man loses woman, man meets woman again, man loses woman again". This concept was allegedly directly related to Alexandre Julien's personal relationships. Un Automne En Solitude was promoted throughout the year with the single Season In Absence, which landed two music videos; one directed by Belgian musician and graphic designer Niels Geybels and filmed in Antwerp; the other directed by Alexandre Julien which was photographed around Upstate New York and Montreal.
In the summer of 2008, Vision Éternel announced a split 7" vinyl with the Californian post-rock band Ethereal Beauty. This release was in preparation for several years, and ultimately evolved into a split with Bonfires For Nobody when Ethereal Beauty changed names in 2010. But it was eventually cancelled when the latter band failed to deliver any material and Vision Éternel wound up using its reserved content on the 2012 EP The Last Great Torch Song. In September 2008, Vision Éternel was signed to Montreal-based post-metal and blackgaze record label Abridged Pause Recordings. Vision Éternel was among the first four bands signed to Abridged Pause Recordings' roster, alongside Ethereal Beauty, French melodic grindcore band Dreams of the Drowned and German depressive black metal band Black Autumn. In the fall of 2008, Tokyo, Japan-based black metal, black ambient and dark ambient record label Frozen Veins Records put together a compilation of the first two Vision Éternel extended plays. The limited edition compact disc, intended exclusively for the Japanese market, featured Seul Dans L'obsession, Un Automne En Solitude, three unreleased b-sides and a poster. Titled An Anthology Of Past Misfortunes, it was released to commemorate the two-year anniversary of the first EP, on February 14, 2009.
Abondance De Périls and The Last Great Torch Song (2010–2013)
Vision Éternel debuted on Abridged Pause Recordings with the release of Abondance De Périls, the band's third concept album. The extended play was released as part of a double bill on March 9, 2010, together with former guitarist Adam Kennedy's new band, Beyond the Dune Sea's eponymous album. Abondance De Périls was also mastered by Adam Kennedy at his new recording studio Vital Philosophy. The promotion of Abondance De Périls spanned several singles, beginning with a re-recording of Love Within Narcosis titled Narcosis Re-Recorded, which was a b-side from the EP and was only available on Saint Valentine's Day 2010 on Vision Éternel's Myspace page. This was followed a week later, on February 20 by the Bandcamp-exclusive Rehearsal November 30th 2009, another b-side featuring a medley of songs spanning all three extended plays and recorded during a rehearsal. Once Abondance De Périls was released in March, Thoughts As Naïvety was pushed as the first single. In the fall of 2010, Thoughts As Solicitation and Thoughts As Affection became promotional singles as they appeared on several post-rock and ambient radio stations, blogs and YouTube channels. Finally, another b-side, Thoughts As Consolation was released on a various artists compilation titled Great Messengers: Palms. In 2011, Vision Éternel was mentioned in a book about post-rock music titled La Croche Lune by David D'Halleine.
The Last Great Torch Song was released as a follow-up to Abondance De Périls on March 14, 2012 through Abridged Pause Recordings. Vision Éternel's fourth extended play, another concept album, was filled with guest appearances by musicians and collaborators. Some of the featured guests include Eiman Nejad, former guitarist of Mutiny Within who was then playing in the thrash metal and speed metal band Eliminator; Howard Change, former member of An Albatross and vocalist of Throne of Mortality; Alexander Fawcett from Oceanus and Arboretus; and Garry Brents of Cara Neir and Parabstruse. Garry Brents also mastered The Last Great Torch Song in addition to providing keyboards. The cover artwork for both Abondance De Périls and The Last Great Torch Song was photographed by French photographer Marina Polak, who had immigrated to Canada in 2009 and befriended the band. Two songs from The Last Great Torch Song appeared in the soundtrack to Lucid Dreaming in New Jersey, an independent feature film written, directed and starring Howard Change.
Echoes From Forgotten Hearts and the ten-year anniversary (2014–present)
In the summer of 2014 Vision Éternel was commissioned to compose the film score to an American-Icelander international co-production short film. The music that Vision Éternel delivered was highly influenced by Clint Mansell's soundtrack for the Duncan Jones 2009 award-winning film Moon. However, the short film’s American writer and director vanished with all the funds for the project, leaving the film unfinished and the music unreleased. Instead of giving up on the material, Alexandre Julien edited, re-recorded and re-conceptualized the soundtrack into a new Vision Éternel album. Echoes From Forgotten Hearts was released through Abridged Pause Recordings on Saint Valentine's Day 2015. The concept album retained a general soundtrack theme, with each song titled Piece Number One through Seven. Pièce No. Sept was released as a first single in 2015. The album graphics for Echoes From Forgotten Hearts were designed by French graphic designer Jeremy Roux, who had previously created the band's logo in 2008 and was hired for several promotional band photo shoots.
A music video was released for Echoes From Forgotten Hearts' second single Pièce No. Trois on August 28, 2017. The film noir-influenced music video featured footage photographed by Jeremy Roux around Mount Royal, Old Montreal, Downtown Montreal and the Old Port of Montreal; and was directed by Hong Kong-based visual artist Vasiliy Atutov. Some of the key locations photographed in the video include Dalhousie Station, Viger Station, Windsor Station, Harbour City, the John Young Monument, the Five Roses Flour Building, the Sun Life Building, the Saint Joseph's Oratory on the Westmount Summit, the Ravenscrag Mansion, the Redpath Hall, Dorchester Square and Dominion Square, the Pied-du-Courant Prison, the Jacques Cartier Bridge and the original Royal Bank of Canada Building. The music video was deliberately released on the day of Academy Award winning cinematographer James Wong Howe's birthday, to honor his film noir influence, an event that was also highlighted by Google's Doodle.
Vision Éternel celebrated its ten-year anniversary in 2017 with several events, including the music video for Pièce No. Trois. The band has also worked with world-renowned illustrator, calligrapher and logo designer Christophe Szpajdel (Emperor, Metallica, Foo Fighters, Rihanna, Calvin Harris, Bruno Mars, Trivium, Dimmu Borgir, Wolves in the Throne Room, Abigail Williams, etc) on a new band logo which appeared on exclusive merchandise and apparel. T-shirts, stickers and posters have been released and the band announced a retrospective boxed set of compact discs and compact cassettes combining remastered and unreleased material.
Style and themes
Vision Éternel was influenced by post-punk and alternative rock bands and artists of the 1990s such as Faith No More, Swans and The Smashing Pumpkins. Black metal bands Bathory, Dissection, Immortal and Burzum, death metal band Morbid Angel, speed metal/thrash metal band Eliminator and heavy metal artist Ozzy Osbourne have also been influential to the band's style; while Elton John, Pink Floyd, Bruce Cockburn, Frank Sinatra and film composers Clint Mansell, Bernard Herrmann and Ennio Morricone were responsible for the sound.
Vision Éternel is generally referred to as an ambient band, though it relies heavily on string instruments, a style more frequently associated with post-rock music. Vision Éternel however maintains that its music is too minimalist to be fully qualified as a post-rock band and contains far more elements of dream pop, shoegaze, ethereal and dark ambient, combined with post-punk, emo, post-hardcore and indie rock. Because of its inability and refusal to be categorized, Vision Éternel coined its own term, a genre called melogaze. Melogaze was made up of two words, shoegaze, a genre the band sympathizes with because of its introspective and introverted elements; and melodrama, a theme that is reflected in each of the band's concept albums. Incidentally, the etymology of the word melodrama is itself a combination of melos (Greek for music) and drame (French for drama).
The band's recurring conceptual themes revolve around drama. Topics such as love at first sight, infatuation, abandonment, emptiness, heartbreak, loneliness, isolation, grief, depression, dysthymia, melancholia, nostalgia, narcissistic withdrawal and nihilism are constantly present. Vision Éternel founder Alexandre Julien accredits this to both to his personal relationships and to the music and film industry environment he was brought up in by relation. One of Alexandre Julien's uncles is Stephane Fania, who was a prominent musician in the Montreal heavy metal and hard rock scene throughout the 1980's and 1990's. Stephane Fania was a founding member of the heavy metal band Boize, associated with Aquarius Records. He also owned a couple of live music concert venues, a recording studio and an art gallery. Two of Alexandre Julien's uncles, brothers Pierre Bourdon and Francois Bourdon, were active in the Montreal film industry. Pierre Bourdon had played in the cold wave band Innervoice in the mid-1980s and then in a falk duo called Pete & Al. He was also a cameraman who worked on such films as The Paperboy, directed by Douglas Jackson, starring William Katt and Alexandra Paul; and The Lifeforce Experiment, directed by Piers Haggard and starring Donald Sutherland. Francois Bourdon is a cinematographer who worked on the cult film Subconscious Cruelty, directed by Karim Hussain. Alexandre Julien was also influenced by his environment. Moving to Edison, New Jersey, a township named after one of cinema's most prominent inventors, Thomas Edison, was a revelation for Alexandre Julien who lived near the Thomas Alva Edison Memorial Tower and Museum. The house where Alexandre Julien lived in New Jersey also appeared in the 2003 film School of Rock.
Growing up connected to the film industry, Alexandre Julien started watching classic films at an early age and has often cited that Vision Éternel's music was more heavily influenced by the cinematic visuals of film noir (and neo-noir), expressionism and drama than by other musicians. Directors such as Alfred Hitchcock, Douglas Sirk, Henri-George Clouzot, Jean-Pierre Melville, Jules Dassin, Fritz Lang, F.W. Murnau, Woody Allen, Henry Hathaway, Robert Siodmak and Otto Preminger; and cinematographers such as James Wong Howe, Robert Burks, John Alton, Joseph MacDonald, Mutz Greenbaum, Elwood Bredell, Nicholas Musuraca, Stanley Cortez, Norbert Brodine, Robert Krasker, Harry J. Wild, Arthur Edeson and Joseph Valentine have often been cited. Portrait photographer Yousuf Karsh's distinctive style has also been credited for the visual presentation of Vision Éternel in photo shoots, as Alexandre Julien is always dressed in a fedora hat and turned-up overcoat, usually depicted in contrasting shadows and lights and often in black and white.
Discography
- Seul Dans L'obsession (2007)
- Un Automne En Solitude (2008)
- An Anthology Of Past Misfortunes (2009)
- Abondance De Périls (2010)
- The Last Great Torch Song (2012)
- Echoes From Forgotten Hearts (2015)