Laurent Saiet & Guests - The Last Man Before Dawn [Trace Label 060]

Set for release on June 19th, 2k24 via the Paris-based Trace Label is "The Last Man Before Dawn", the latest album conceived by long standing French composer and musician Laurent Saiet who is collaborating with a wide ranged set of vocalists as well as other artists of which Quentin Rollet of Nurse With Wound might be one of the most renowned to create this twelve tracks and roughly 63 minutes spanning longform piece. Coming in a quite epic triple fold 7" vinyl sized collage art cover the CD album caters a musical arc spanning from atmospheric, Dark Ambient-infused scores evolving into intense, musically astounding Electronic x Jazz fusion pieces to deep, highly nocturnal DarkWave x Goth vibes to be found in the absolutely essential late night bang0r that is "As Yelly Canny Eyes" whereas "Far From The Sun" caters laid back, yet slightly dark'ish Downtempo Pop x TripHop, "Judy" drifts off into almost David Lynch'esque territories, "Gloomy And Sunday" serves a perfect winter x late autumn vibe with its elegic, yet highly dramatic strings and an overall ballad'esque and bluesy feel backed by heavy, muscular drums, the intro sequence of "Far Away" is as dark and brooding as it gets before the tune evolves into some kind of a scenic JazzRock instrumental and the closing cut "Descientize Me" even weighs in a kinda PostPunk x (No)Wave-informed attitude with its combination of intense primal drums, twangy guitars and almost whispered vocals just to name a few. Defo a well varied and well diverse album which, despite its dedicated non-mainstream attitude, has the potential to reach a widespread audience, from fans of the deeper realms of Pop Music, Leftfield Pop and Avantgarde to even a Goth- x PostPunk-leaning clientele. Therefore: go check!

Album artwork on Instagram!