VIDEO PREMIERE | Rêves sonores, "Swan Song"

Nick Schofield and Stefan Christoff of Rêves sonores; press photo courtesy of the artists.

Visual, visceral, audio, literary arts and the like have the power to transport to us to fantastical places. Like in the case of the recently released album Crépuscule from ambient adventurers Nick Schofield and Stefan Christoff, aka Rêves sonores, the Montreal duo meticulously design a trip to Mile End for a virtual walk through the mythic Twilight Garden (aka Jardin du Crépuscule). Blending the symphonic and electronic, Crépuscule is a floral and mind illuminating delight. The duo begins the cycle with the bright flutter of "Alight", emulating illusory environments of baroque splendor with "Mondial", employing the new theatre dramatics of "Soliloquy", the mesmerizing mystery of "Seers Theme", to embarking upon chapters of ecstatic celestial places on "Euphoria phase". Bathe in the pond of tranquility on "Svalbard", then wade through the pensive stream of "Spirodon", as "Hearken" blends deep moody strings and keys, taking us to the penultimate consciousness opening "Lucidity" before "Reprise" concludes the walk in the park in an exit of high spirits and elation.

Rêves sonores' single aptly titled "Swan Song" received a visual interpretation from the duo's fellow collaborator Charline Dally composing collections of captured reflections of light and nature. Dally matches the haunting and harrowing blend of sax and strings into a kaleidoscopic prism shine of images from rolling wave motions of water to towering tree tops seen through a variety of lenses. At times the aperture bends and blurs so that image becomes obscured and out of focus that contributes to the overall otherworldliness of the audio/visual aesthetic in play. Rêves sonores invites you to fall into the innerworkings of a camera like an odyssey of magical realism. "Swan Song" lifts the listener upwards towards the heavens of the solar system in a sweeping mix of strings, subtle synths and brass that work in concert to create something symphonic and new. The video underscores the natural motifs of the song and those found throughout the rest of Crépuscule, providing an escapist portal to a secret garden of inexplicable enchantment.

Nick Schofield of Rêves sonores provided some thoughts on “Swan Song”:

"Swan Song” really encapsulates Crépuscule like a microcosm. It features all the elements that characterize this album: smoky saxophone loops, majestic violin melodies, glitched out warbling piano samples, and the Moog Prodigy synthesizer unifying it all. While the piece initially began with the sax loop and piano hits, Ari Swan then added breathtaking embellishments with her beautiful violin playing, at which point the song became an ode to her invaluable contribution.

The music video was created by Charline Dally, a long-time collaborator of Rêves sonores. Having performed audio/visual concerts together at MUTEK and opening for Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, Charline's visionary aesthetics are closely associated to this project. It was a pleasure seeing how Charline's prismatic perspectives of refracted nature perfectly accompanied the uplifting sentiment of “Swan Song”.

Stefan Christoff of Rêves sonores provided their reflections on the track as well:

"Swan Song” speaks to a big part of the essence of the Crépuscule album, there is both this sense of lift and aspiration that feels like the dawn, articulated by Ari's violin, while there is also the flip side that feels more like shadows in Manhattan, more exemplified by the saxophone tones that Brahja plays. Like the entire album, “Swan Song” is a composite of different moments and voices that reach across different times and also physical spaces, a small apartment studio in Montreal, a loft just off of Wall Street and a cabin studio amongst the mountains in Alberta, there's a lot of scope there and the piece reflects this.

Visual artist Charline Dally shared the following insights on the making of the video for “Swan Song”:

I made explorations with the reflections of the sunlight through a diffracting lens, from which we observe the world. I found that the luminous, haunting, dreamlike atmosphere [of “Swan Song”] was in good dialogue with these effects of dancing and glittering light, which deconstructs reality to extract a certain beauty from it.

Rêves sonores’ album Crépuscule is available now via Youngbloods.