As the year wraps up, usually the releases become either less frequent, or less amazing. This year, some of the best albums have held on to the end. Corrections House, Julie Byrne, and now, Tocsin, the latest epic from European post-rock technicians Year Of No Light. Post-rock is a harsh mistress, one that can easily bleed from complex structures into convoluted boredom. Year Of No Light avoids those trappings simply by being fearless. They are not bound by the conventions of a scene, and their music reflects their passion to communicate on a primal level.
Earlier this year YONL shocked and amazed with Vampyre, their personal scoring of the sixties art-horror film. While Tocsin is not about any one film, the band still executes it as a soundtrack. So many other post-rock and instrumental bands, create their music around a need to show off their ability. Year Of No Light, much like Russian Circles, Tides Of The Nebula or End Of The Ocean, are more concerned with translating emotion into their music. Ebbs and flows, peaks and valleys, they all seem to flow with an emotional upheaval. When I hear Tocsin, it becomes a soundtrack to the nervous breakdown of a God.
First and foremost, Tocsin must be heard from opening note to last. Yes the individual movements are excellent, but the impact of the album comes from hearing the entire thing. Second, the structure of Tocsin weighs more heavily on swelling tides of music than fanciful playing. Don’t misunderstand, the musicianship here is outstanding, but YONL are aiming for an emotional response, not a cerebral one. When you hear it, you’ll attach your own significance to it. The emotions Tocsin stirs will be uniquely your own. It is a rare band that can create a slice of art like that.
I hear the nervous breakdown of a God. The opening dark-swells of the thirteen minute title track sound like the God beginning to crack, his grip on sanity melting away as he causes destruction he has no idea he’s responsible for. “Tocsin” is a tragic opus that, no matter how loud it becomes, never loses a hidden sadness behind it. “Gehenne” is the complete descent into madness. A fast moving groove defined by textured guitars coming from multiple angles, “Gehenne” is a runaway train heading to it’s final doom, or a God, driven by madness, let loose on a mortal plain.
At the end of the destruction comes the darkness. “Desolation” has a suffering melancholy to it, the realization of the other Gods that their fallen comrade has rained down catastrophe. Halfway through “Desolation” there is quiet. A few bars of baritone horns signaling a new direction. The movement opens up, the melancholic is now mixed with regret, and depression. The fallen God knows his madness is inescapable.
“Stella Rectrix”, for me, is the war between the Gods and their fallen brother. YONL flush every second with dynamics. The song never stops moving, it never stops expanding. “Stella Rectirx” sounds like battle, but one fraught with genuine peril. A war nobody wanted. “Alamut” continues the battle. A havoc driven song that crashes to an end with a haunting guitar that dictates the death of a mad god.
This was my interpretation; you will have your own. Tocsin allows you that freedom. Year Of No Light creates not only art with Tocsin, but also a bit of magic by opening up their creation for you to relate to however you see fit. There is no rhetoric here, no idea that Year Of No Light are trying to convince you of anything, not even the direction of the music. They leave it up to, and isn’t that what great art is really about?
photo: Mathieu Drouet
