Les Chants de l'Aurore

Les Chants de l'Aurore -- the songs of dawn -- is the seventh studio album by the French band Alcest, released on 21 June 2024 by Nuclear Blast. It is their second for the label after Spiritual Instinct of 2019. Neige, the band's main writer, had writer's block through the early part of the pandemic; after about a year he came out of it and wrote "L'Envol", which became the lead single. He said he had deliberately tried to emulate the lighter sound of the early Alcest records, because he tends to be quite melancholic in daily life and wanted to make this kind of beautiful music to cheer himself up. The album was recorded at his home rather than in a studio. "L'Envol" went out as the first single on 23 February 2024 and "Flamme Jumelle" as the second on 18 April. Reviews were generally positive and the album entered the French chart at number 77. The sixth song, "L'Enfant de la lune", carries a Japanese subtitle on the sleeve. The order here is the seven tracks of the American CD, Nuclear Blast Records NBR 6922-2.