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VERSION FRANCAISE

Les Géographies Secrètes de YETI LANE

Trois ans après les envolées stratosphériques et le déluge sonore qui avaient fait le succès de The Echo Show, le groupe poursuit son exploration des territoires psychédéliques, quittant progressivement les rives ensoleillées de la pop pour mieux plonger dans le volcan d'un rock acide, rocailleux et bouillant comme la lave. 

On entre dans ce nouvel album comme dans un aéroport envahi par le silence et la solitude.
On appuie sur play comme on active les réacteurs d’un cargo chargé de nous transporter vers une zone inconnue.

Embarquement à bord de L’Aurore, le fabuleux vaisseau fantôme dont Yeti Lane a pris les commandes.
Visite guidée des sons et des textures électroniques.
Grande vadrouille à travers les matériaux bruts du rock.
Panorama des zones les plus organiques de la musique instrumentale, sur laquelle vient se poser toute la délicatesse d’une voix douce et rassurante.
Cet épatant voyage se décompose en huit régions.

On s’aventurera donc tour à tour dans le désert chaud de Délicat, l’océan déchaîné de Good Word’s Gone, les dangereuses montagnes d’Acide Amer, les marécages paisibles de Liquide, la cité radieuse de L’Aurore, les cavernes gelées de Crystal Sky, la steppe froide d’Exquis, la plage abandonnée de Ne dis Rien…

Dans l'itinéraire de Yeti Lane, L'Aurore s’impose comme un album de liberté et d'émancipation. 

Essentiellement écrits en français, les huit chapitres de ce voyage musical marquent une rupture avec le mode opératoire jusqu'ici observé par Cédric Benyoucef et Charlie Boyer, en accordant une large part d'improvisation dans l'élaboration de ce disque.

Il serait d'ailleurs difficile d'évoquer le processus d'écriture de ce nouvel album sans citer le nom des fées qui se sont penchées sur son berceau au cours de ces dernières années, car les rencontres et le travail mené aux côtés d'Anton Newcombe (Brian Jonestown Massacre), Barrie Cadogan (Little Barrie, Primal Scream) ou encore Damo Suzuki (CAN) se sont avérés déterminants dans sa composition.

Avançons donc sans attendre au coeur de ces riffs ombrageux, avec la promesse qu’au bout de la nuit finit toujours par poindre L'Aurore, donnant à toute cette noirceur une beauté et une élégance à sa hauteur, vertigineuse.  

(François Morice.)

ENGLISH VERSION

Parisian psych duo Yeti Lane release their third album ‘L’Aurore’ on March 4. It’s the follow-up to their acclaimed 2012 release ‘The Echo Show’, and perfectly balances their love of analogue electronics with huge waves of guitar. This time they discarded their suitcase of gear and improvised, building their sound up from scratch, and the result is a record that is rougher, dirtier and darker than its predecessor. It also nds them singing in their native French for the rst time; the title, which translates as ‘the dawn’, is almost literal.

Yeti Lane were formed from the ashes of underrated psych- folk-prog out t Cyann & Ben in 2009 and their self-titled debut album followed the next year to great acclaim, but
its released was followed by the departure of founding member LoAc Carron. Undaunted, the remaining duo of Cédric Benyoucef (vocals, guitar) and Charlie Boyer (drums, electronics) came back two years later with ‘The Echo Show’, which combined Kraftwerk with LCD Soundsystem and

My Bloody Valentine to incredible effect, resulting in more glowing reviews, BBC 6 Music sessions and memorable live shows, including Liverpool Psych Fest, supporting The Brian Jonestown Massacre and backing Can legend Damo Suzuki.

It was these last two connections that pointed the way
to the new album: the shows with Suzuki were completely improvised and then Ben and Charlie travelled to Berlin
for some freeform (and still unreleased) sessions with BJM mainman Anton Newcombe and Primal Scream guitarist ‘Little’ Barrie Cadogan. “We’ve always considered each album in response to the previous one, we try to never repeat the same things, the same gimmicks,” explains Charlie of the duo’s new methods. “We needed to forget our habits, to clean our minds in order to nd new directions. We had a lot of fun improvising, which opened us to new playgrounds.”

‘L’Aurore’ was recorded with the same new-found freedom. “We wanted to keep the excitement of the moment, with
no routine,” says Charlie. “Everything was recorded as we were playing, just the two of us in the same room. We chose takes in which we felt something was happening, rather than the ones in which we were playing perfectly; we kept the mistakes.” On ‘Exquis’ and ‘Ne Dis Rien’ you can hear the ideas forming and shape-shifting; elemental titles such as ‘Liquide’ and ‘Crystal Sky’ are a giveaway, too. But this is not a self-indulgent record, especially when there are tunes as good as ‘Acide Amer’, ‘Good Word’s Gone’ and the title track.

The band’s basic in uences remain the same – 13th Floor Elevators, Neil Young, The Flaming Lips, Spacemen 3 – but it was their rediscovery of the French scene of the late ’60s and early ’70s that inspired Ben to try writing the lyrics in French. (Ben cites a number of artists from the Saravah label, such as Brigitte Fontaine, Higelin and Areski, as well as ‘Obsolete’, Dashiell Hedayat’s largely improvised record made with Gong.) But, perhaps the biggest in uence on the band has been simply the world around them. “These past two years, especially 2015, were dark to us on many levels,” says Charlie. “I think it was this darkness that in uenced the writing and the sound a lot more than bands or movies.”

The result? ‘L’Aurore’: the first light from a new Yeti Lane.

(Nathaniel Cramp)

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