Alcest

Alcest is, along with Amesoeurs, the main project of French musician Stéphane Paut, aka Neige. Having started out in black metal in 2005, Neige has since turned Alcest's style towards shoegaze and post-rock. A multi-instrumentalist, Neige sings, plays guitar, bass and drums in a band of which he is the sole studio member until 2009. He is then joined by drummer Winterhalter. Internationally acclaimed for their albums Souvenirs d'un Autre Monde (2007), Écailles de Lune (2010) and Les Voyages de l'Âme (2012), Alcest is one of France's leading blackgaze bands. Singing in French and English, Alcest kicked off 2014 with Shelter, featuring Neil Halstead of Slowdive on the song "Away ". Two years later, he pushed experimentation and the quest for an increasingly dark sound further with Kodama, inspired by the animated film Princess Mononoké. Spiritual Instinct followed in 2019, before a five-year period of recording silence that ended with the release of the album Les Chants de l'Aurore in 2024, ranked No. 77 in the French charts and No. 14 in Germany.