Esthesis was formed and fronted by Aurélien Goude who provides music, lyrics, keyboards and vocals. The other band members are Arnaud Nicolau trembling the drum skins, Marc Anguill strumming fluidly on the bass guitar, with Rémi Geyer finger skating over the lead guitar frets whilst Mathilde Collet dreamily beguiles us with additional vocals.
Three albums in and this French outfit are showing no signs of weakness. I was captivated by first album The Awakening in 2020, a very assured debut, then they surfed the wave of the sophomoric, 2022 released Watching Worlds Collide, successfully avoiding choppy waters.
They have supported Soen and Leprous on tour and have been on the bill with Crippled Black Phoenix, Myrath and Opeth, also headlining the Poppodium Boerderij in the Netherlands (with John Mitchell on support). But this doesn’t really give an indication of the band’s sound, which has been described variously as cinematic, art rock, experimental with sharp riffs, melancholic, airy and powerful atmospheres, post rock, industrial & progressive touches.
Influences can be heard throughout new album Out Of Step, and the band quote artists ranging from Hans Zimmer to Tool, Portishead and Leprous amongst many others, with the most prevalent for me being Porcupine Tree/Steve Wilson. This is by no means a slate on their originality or material, merely if you are a fan of the aforesaid, there is much to like on Esthesis’ albums.
As I write this review digitally on my PC, the first track from the album slithers from the media player speakers and floats round the room. The day grows pale desperately resisting the damp, dark approaching night. It feels safe inside. My mobile phone linked to the PC, the router downstairs facilitates, and the digital TV offers more streaming options than I can watch in a lifetime. Their Connection offers a false security as we struggle to manage the digital age, fake news and disinformation. The dreamy keyboards drift silkily in contrast to the guitar riffs and drums as they battle it out. Are we controlling or being controlled?
Caught up in the circle of life, the first single from the album touches on – ‘settling for what we have, running into the mundane and afraid to step out of our comfort zone’. Is this The Frame that captures the painting of our life, displaying for anyone watching, constricting what we do. There are those who find comfort in the familiar. Smooth hypnotic vocals with harmonious synths and keys set the scene. Others wish to break the bonds of mundanity, stretch out from the zone they have trapped themselves in and fly the mounting, transported on the mournful riffs of the day to day.
Instrumental, Fractured #1 blossoms like the start of a Tangerine Dream track, but as we hear it stride towards fullness it’s cut like a lost connection.
Have you ever felt you don’t fit in, alone in a crowded room and Out Of Step with the rest of the modern world and as recounted on the title track of the album? Eerie synth sounds and stuttered percussion, seek to initially wrong foot you as Aurélien’s tranquil vocals wander through the crowd. Faces smile, strange and detached as the tone grows heavier, swirling around you, growling guitar snapping at your heels with crushing drums thumping in your head. You have to escape the claustrophobia, pushing yourself through, leaving the throng behind, with the dizziness fading to a calmness in isolation as time ticks on to slowing heartbeats.
Wandering the streets, lost in your thoughts, the City Lights promise of psychogenic warmth, offering cognitive conception without digital or human interference. The warm keys and smooth, sliding bass blanket you like a warm coat as feet tread the dampened paving -soothed from distant worrying guitar hooks mimicking a buzzing wasp.
The second instrumental on the album followed behind you briefly, like a hopeful stray animal, subdued wails and synthesised blips, looped and Fractured #2 nothing as you ignored them, lost in thought and walked away.
A Trip-hop intro shows variation, as we re-enter this Circus of a society once again, with harmonising vocal intones from Mathilde Collet evoking French adverts from the 70’s. Intensifying as the weight of expectation places pressure on the finely balanced mental state in which we are held, guitars and vocals accelerate, Steven Wilson style, and Mathilde’s vocals power into Ninet Tyab territory. We struggle to to avoid the drama of the falling voices, slipping away from our unstable existence on a tumble of drumbeats, to nothing.
Creeping into your ears on similar waves as Connection, you stand resolute, watching as The Storm washes over you deceptively with a gentle ripple. It lulls you in, only to find the tide of music floods in almost imperceptibly. You are left caught up in the eddying dance of the epic track on this album, mournful cries drift in the air as interference introduces waves of crushing guitar and the rhythms of drums and bass. They crash against you, swirling vocals submerging your senses and you sink beneath the surface, lost in it all until the ripples dissipate to a glass like tranquillity.
The completive, instrumental ‘bonus (though I’m not sure why it isn’t just the end one) track’ sees you sink further into The Abyss as cymbals symbol your fading away, percussion imitates your desperate floundering and the water claims you. Drowning on dry land, under the weight of expectations in your life, the bass counts the lowering depths as guitar strings scream your righteous indignation. You are consumed to resignation and sink back into despair, when suddenly you are sucked back to the surface on hope of a new chapter in your life, your choices await.
Out of Step was released on the Misty Tones label, 31st October 2025. The gloomily atmospheric cover photo, taken by Aurélien, is fitting with it’s dank melancholy, railing against dark clouds of Autumnal nights, drawing closer toward the icy fingers of Winter. It is one of those albums best listened to whilst curled up on the sofa, with dimmed lighting away from the stormy nights, in front of a cosy fire, the warm glow of your favourite tipple in hand or whilst journeying in the dark.
The confidence of the previous two albums, pushes their third sibling release to yet another level, with the lustrous, quality production allowing the individual instrumentation and FX to blend and stand out as required. A maturity exudes from the grooves not only proving they can stand against more seasoned bands and musicians, but continue to step up. One can only wait anticipatively and wonder how much higher they can raise the bar on future releases.
TRACK LISTING
01. Connection (5:16)
02. The Frame (6:14)
03. Fractured #1 (1:07)
04. Out Of Step (8:28)
05. City Lights (5:10)
06. Fractured #2 (1:21)
07. Circus (4:10)
08. The Storm (10:51)
~ Bonus track:
09. Abyss (4:47)
Total Time – 47:24
MUSICIANS
Aurélien Goud – Vocals, Keyboards, Drum & FX Programming
Arnaud Nicolau – Drum & FX Programming
Marc Anguill – Bass Guitar
Rémi Geyer – Lead Guitar
Mathilde Collet – Backing Vocals (2,7 & 8)
ADDITIONAL INFO
Record Label: Independent
Country of Origin: France
Date of Release: 31st October 2025
LINKS
Esthesis – Website | Facebook | Bandcamp | YouTube | Instagram
