A flow of emotions so intense to leave you almost stunned.
These few words would be enough to describe Alcest's concert at Alcatraz-Milan last week. An intimate and intimist live show, although the venue was packed with people.
The marvellous stage is a setting of rare elegance. Soft lights illuminate two elegant wading birds that stand against a sun disc. Here and there grass stems and feather flowers evoke bucolic scenes and, perhaps, reconnect the spiritual dimension with the earthly one.
Alcest didn't just play a beautiful concert, they took us on a journey in the most intimate depths of our soul through the four natural elements: air, water, earth and fire.
Neige is Air. The spiritual dimension has always pervaded vocalist's being and existence, searching refuge in an inner world not always visible and comprehensible to others. His delicate, ethereal and dreamy singing conveys emotions through his own language, where even anger and despair become melodies that heal the soul.
Pierre ‘Zero’ Corson is Water, with his guitar and backing vocals he takes perfectly Alcest form, shaping notes and voices that do not just act as Neige's backing, but become its natural continuation.
Indria Saray is Fire. On stage, the bass player is the one who moves the most, you can feel him unleashing an energy that is difficult to tame, creating a full-bodied sound carpet that gives consistency to all the tracks.
Jean ‘Winterhalter’ Deflandre is Earth, the engaging and hypnotic rhythms of the drummer, the only other official member of Alcest, puts down deep roots and builds solid ground from which the band's ethereal melodies unfold and grow.



Four elements coming together perfectly in a unique alchemy. Alcest make their entrance on stage at 20:45, in a dreamy atmosphere. ‘Komorebi’, “L'Envol” and “Améthyste”, the first three tracks from the latest album Les Chants de l'Aurore, follow one after the other, in exactly the same order.
A brief jump back in time takes us back to Spiritual Instinct with the wonderful song ‘Protection’. With its melancholic and despairing melodies it enchants the audience, which, with the following ‘Sapphire’, feel overwhelmed by so much beauty, something quite emotional, to use the words of our writer Alessandro Zaina, also present at the event.
We slowly move further back in time, closer to the black metal sound of the origins with ‘Ecaille de Lune Pt. II’ in which Neige's voice manages to be delicate even in the growling parts, aided by a reverb sometimes almost excessive. The following song, ‘Flamme Jumelle’, one of my favourite of the last album, has a great live performance, with that sharp guitar cutting through the soul.
The following ‘Le miroir’ offers great evidence of Winterhalter, while melodies, voices and harmonies pervade the Alcatraz with impalpable and evanescent sounds, the drummer imposing an earthy, concrete and material rhythm.



The setlist ranges from Souvenirs d'un autre monde to Kodama without ever interrupting the flow of emotions and the stylistic line that characterises them, between black metal reminiscences and atmospheres permeated with shoegaze sounds.
Then... dramatically soon, there are the notes of ‘L'Adieu’ which, just as it closes the last album, also closes the concert. The band members leave the stage, one by one, while the final notes of the song still resound repeatedly. Only Neige remains on stage with his guitar, and the audience sings that melody again and again, to prolong that moment of intimate connection between us in an infinite instant.

The last notes fade away, the lights come back on, but a sense of great emotion, deep gratitude and the awareness of having lived a unique experience pervades, not just a concert, that would be reductive, but an intimate journey into the world of which Alcest have made us participants.



PS - I'm very sorry I couldn't tell about Svalbard and Doodseskader, opener of the live show but, although I got tickets for the concert several months ago, I came from far away and arrived too late..