Photo by: Clément Cassand
Official press release:
French post-metal pioneers Hypno5e have always been a borderline band, in the truest sense of the term: a band that transcends the borders and limitations of not only the genre of music which is commonly considered to be their territory, but the territory of music itself.
Their conceptual, cinematic live show has always been built upon a strong visual component… but that was just the beginning of a journey which is now reaching the next level: Alba – Les Ombres Errantes is the first full length movie directed by singer and guitar player Emmanuel Jessua. And his band, Hypno5e, has turned down their amps, or switched them off entirely, to provide the stunning seventy-five-minute soundtrack for this ambitious project.
Jessua grew up in Bolivia, where the movie was filmed with a team of seven French and Bolivian volunteers, on a budget of only 22.000€. The result is a breathtaking sonic and visual journey through the otherworldly landscapes of one of the most intriguing places on earth; a journey that orbits around the memories and reflections of a man contemplating about the eternal loss of childhood. Jessua relays:
“The idea of this movie was born in the Amazon forest, precisely in Rurenabaque, on the terrace of a small hotel on the Beni river shore. I was only ten years old and had been living with my family in Bolivia for more than five years. I was experiencing life with an incredible intensity, in a fantastic environment… with this film, I wanted to capture the constant exceeding of limits that I feel when I’m in Bolivia; the limits between the gods and the human, between sanity and madness, between the past and the present. It is in the religious and musical syncretism of the Oruro carnival (where my mother used to dance each year) that this exceeding of limits can be witnessed the best, where myth and reality mingle, and where the protagonists lose their sensation of time or space.”
The soundtrack of the movie, performed by Hypno5e’s acoustic alter ego band A Backward Glance On A Travel Road (featuring the exact same members as Hypno5e) captures the essence of that whirlwind which blurs and reunites age, dreams, and reality. For those used to the technical post metal for which Hypno5e has become known, A Backward Glance On A Travel Road might come as a surprise at first: Fans of the band however are well aware that moments of folk and Latin have always been present within Hypno5e’s epic take on contemporary metal. Alba – Les Ombres Errantes is a movie, an album, and a cinematic live show in its original form soon to be seen live across theaters and stages in Europe.
Alba – Les Ombres Errantes will see release on April 6th via Pelagic Records on 2xLP, CD, and digital formats. Pre-orders are available now. In North America, Europe, and digitally.
View the video for “Los Heraldos Negros”, with images from the film, below:
Alba – Les Ombres Errantes track listing:
Side A:
1. “Who Wakes Up From This Dream Does Not Bear My Name”
2. “Cuarto Del Alba”
Side B:
3. “L’ombre Errante”
4. “Night On The Petrifed Sea”
5. “Ghosts – The Wandering Shadows”
Side C:
6. “Los Heraldos Negros”
7. “Ojos Azules”
8. “Calling”
Side D:
9. “Agua”
10. “Light Of Desert And The Shadows Inside”
Hypno5e/A Backward Glance On A Travel Road is:
Emmanuel Jessua – guitar, lead vocals, charango, piano
Jonathan Maurois – guitar
Cedric Pages – bass
Theo Begue – drums