Feu Follet, the multifaceted musical brainchild of Nancy, France’s musician and producer Alban Blaising, returns to WL//WH with a premiere of the official video, edited by Blaising himself, for “Lemaire,” the second excerpt from the forthcoming sixth studio album “Swamps of Sadness,” featuring the Berliner artist and Blackjack Illuminist Records owner Leonard Donat (Vlimmer, ASSASSUN, Feverdreamt, and Fir Cone Children) on vocal duty.
Since his purely instrumental debut album, “Le champ des morts,” in 2019, the French artist has steadily shaped a distinctive sonic identity at the intersection of Coldwave, Shoegaze, Ambient, and Minimal Synth.
His upcoming full-length, “Swamps of Sadness,” due out July 18 via Blackjack Illuminist Records, marks a shift toward a more Rock-influenced, raw aesthetic. The work includes Blaising himself on synths and (for the first time) e-drums, while the vocals are provided by a rich lineup of guest vocalists, including Vlimmer, Thomas Schernikau (Forced to Mode), Isabelle B. Baumann, Pat Aubier, and Pierre Bastien.
A bouncy, subtly edgy, vibrant atmosphere of obsessive droning, springy and swirling effects encapsulates erratic rhythmic momentums from steady to tumbling and clashing, stabbed by both sludgy and bulky, groovy bass throbs and low, twinkly synth pluckings, whilst, amidst a wink of shadowy spoken words, Vlimmer’s signature urgent, angsty hi/lo vocals soar into helpless throaty cries before collapsing into baritone gloom.
In the symbolic animated official video, edited by Alban Blaising, clay formations squiggle like snakes and mold, seemingly on their own, into fleets of geometric sculptures while retro computer-generated configurations shine light on the matter. Over time, perception rotates, energetic inversions occur, and periods of disconnection take hold, but the world keeps moving forward, despite the ever changing view of the observer.
Feu Follet’s forthcoming 5th album, “Swamps of Sadness,” will be released in CD / Cassette & digital formats on July 18, 2025, via Berlin-based independent label Blackjack Illuminist Records.
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