L'eclipse Nue

‘Zayin’ is the seventh letter in the Hebrew alphabet. It is also the symbolic title of L’eclipse Nue‘s latest album, which represents their seventh release and the seventh anniversary of this project. 777.

L’eclipse Nue is the stage name of Daniel Sine, an American-born noise artist who spent the last decade living and making music in Tokyo, Japan. Japan, in fact, is where he started unleashing his pain via an audio outlet under the name L’eclipse Nue, and it seems that Japanese artistic culture has left its mark on Sine—something that you can surely hear it in his music. It definitely has some Japanoise influences, but Sine brings other things to table, primarily through his noise textures and vocals.

Zayin is not L’eclipse Nue‘s heaviest album. Previous releases (at least the ones I’ve heard) are much harsher in sound for the most part. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a noise album with some very intense passages. Some tracks can really damage your ear drums if you make the mistake of playing them too loud. A fine example for that is the album’s closer, ‘Chthonic Lament’, which really fucked with my brain in the best possible way. It’s short yet absolutely deadly!

Yet, most of the brutality is covered by a more atmospheric structure. Hypnotic Industrial loops and feedback are fused together with some sparser dark ambient elements, which gives the album an otherwise bleak skeleton to build around. In tracks such as ‘Beneath the Hooves of Metatron’ and ‘Crawling to Heaven on Abscessed Limbs’, you can really hear the softer touch behind the violence.

Tying the entire album together are monstrous and violent noise attacks with airy background overtones. On top of this, Sine’s vocals which are quite different from what you’d normally expect to find in a noise album. Something that for some reason increases the genuinely uneasy atmosphere.

In terms of Sine’s vocal delivery, he’s often surprisingly neither harsh nor brutal, but rather soft, at times even fragile. There are times when we can hear screams and shouts, but it seems that in his personal hell, Sine is not a sadistic spirit, but an involuntary visitor. Like most vocal performances in the style of power electronics, they, as well as Sine’s lyrics, can be angry at times, but mostly they sound like they are coming from a man who is close to his limit. ‘How Do You Get to Heaven?,’ Sine asks in the ninth track which bares the same name, and it seems like all the background noises cry with him. This is by far my favorite track off Zavin. It’s dark and full of hurt, and as it evolves, it slowly sucks your soul dry. Literally.

The creeping synthesizer mixed with the sounds of fog next to these broken, sobbing vocals made me picture myself in a dark and cold pit. There is not much hope to be found here, but instead waves of confusion, paranoia, and surrender, coming from someone who is a heartbeat away from giving up but still stands out there in his struggle.

Zavin‘s artwork also plays a significant role in developing its story. On the front cover (photo taken by Ray Ochiai), we see Sine passed out on the floor next to a toilet, lying next to a pool of vomit. Above him kneels a beautiful naked woman, either watching over him or ‘sucking his psychic energy’. You can’t really tell. She seems removed, almost as if she were somewhere else. Perhaps in a trance, but definitely not in this filthy restroom.

The word ‘heaven’ appears scribbled in reverse on a mirror in what appears to be some sort of vague tribute to Kubrick‘s The Shining (‘REDRUM’). Below the mirrored heaven note is an arrow pointing downwards, towards hell, where Sine clearly finds himself all too often. This message is clear.

The album’s cover is as personal and symbolic as L’eclipse Nue‘s music is, especially here on Zavin. It represents—in many ways—his state of mind, emotions, and pain, but also hints at breaking through Sine’s ‘rock bottom’ into a transformative new stage.

Sine himself referred to the naked woman from the album’s artwork as ‘an angel of death’. The grim reaper obviously represent death or an ending of some sort (a symbolic death); plus, we have that ‘heaven’ inscription with the not-so-subtle directions painted beneath it which represent a new phase. Good or bad (heaven or hell), nothing is certain at this point… but it doesn’t look good, judging from the floor looking up.

Of interest is that this is the final album by L’eclipse Nue to be recorded in Japan. Sine recently, for personal reasons, had to leave Tokyo which was his home for many years, and move back to the United States. In many ways, Zavin is the end of an era for L’eclipse Nue, and the beginning of a new one. And Daniel Sine takes us along on his journey. This is one of those rare artists who truly bring themselves into their art and don’t simply put on a mask or play a character. The pain, the confusion, the fury: All are real, and they combine to create something that I wish I’d seen more in art.
Track List:

01) Portal 503
02) Affection in an Abyss
03) Beneath the Hooves of Metatron
04) Ego Incinerator
05) Screaming Until I Go Deaf
06) Crawling to Heaven on Abscessed Limbs
07) Waiting Beside a Pit of Sheep’s Blood
08) Rib
09) How Do You Get to Heaven?
10) Chthonic Lament

Written by: Michael Zolotov
Label: Shiver to Death Recordings (United States) / N/A / CD
Japanoise / Experimental / Noise - Heathen Harvest

L’eclipse Nue is a project which was formerly based in Tokyo but now moved in the US. With this album, they grace us with a very enjoyable mix of noise / ambient / industrial madness!

The whole thing totally fits the title in my opinion. It is divided in two parts on the digital album while the cd seems to gather both parts in one single piece so I’ll talk about this album as a single track.

One thing that stroke me with this release is that it’s sounding surprisingly clear for a harsh noise release without removing any single bit of brutality and rawness to it. Maybe is it due to the nature of the sounds used there which are not all that saturated. It has harsh noise wall elements but goes much farther than that. Trippy and “ufoesque” synths are heavily used all other the track and kinda “black-metal” vocals can also be heard. They’re not that obvious because they’re really well mixed into the rest of the chaos as a whole single thing. There also are some spoken parts but I can’t get what is said.

The album is available as a free digital download and also as an unlimited cd edition. I totally recommend the cd to get the whole thing as it’s intended to be. Totally worth the 3 little dollars required for it.

It can be grabbed here. - Moessacre Rex

L'ECLIPSE NUE — ZAYIN (CD by (CD by Shiver To Death Recordings)

Back in Vital Weekly 1032 I already noticed that this one man band recently moved from Tokyo to
Connecticut yet this new album was the last one that he recorded in the old country. This is the
seventh album by Daniel Sine's project and it's also the seventh year of the band's existence. 'Zayin
refers to the seventh letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and so the number 777 becomes an important
thing here. The album is to be released by October 31st 2016 (which seems a long time away),
so July 7th was missed as a 'better' date. The pieces on this album, says Dine, "illustrate a perverse
relationship with an abusive and unfathomable God. The women on the cover is meant to represent
an angle of death" — ah that explains and most likely one has a pretty good idea what the musical
content will be. The musical territory of L'eclipse Nue is to be found in the world of industrial music/
power electronics/noise, which ever is the preferred word. Much of what L'eclipse Nue deals with
voices, feedback, and distortion and while it is not always clear what these lyrics are supposed to
mean, it is most likely not something about sunshine and love. Pieces are called 'Ego Incinerator',
'Crawling To Heaven On Abscessed Limbs' or 'Screaming until I Go Deaf', but what I particularly
enjoy about L'eclipse Nue is that it isn't all one long howl or an endless screech of noise. He knows
how to pull back and give his pieces a bit of air by asserting control over his musical matter, such
as the desolate keyboard in 'How Do You Get To Heaven?', along with some remarkable 'low' vocals.
I would say this new album is a remarkably good one; it is finely balanced with all shades that noise
has to offer, and as such quite a leap forward from the previous album, which I also quite enjoyed.
Noise of this kind is not my daily cup of Joe, but all of this is very enjoyable. (FdW) - Vital Weekly

L'ECLIPSE NUE – SCARS FOREVER (CD by Shiver To Death Recordings)

Up until recently L'eclipse Nue was based in Tokyo but just last month moved to Connecticut and also until now
many of Daniel Sine, the man behind the project, released many of his works on Dorei Recordings, but this new
one is a new label, called Shiver To Death Recordings, yet all of the pieces on this new release were recorded
last year, while still being based in Japan. Looking at the cover and the titles, there can be no doubt about this;
this is the world of noise music. A man/women with a bandage, titles like 'Box Cutter' and 'Blood Tooth' and the
music is what one kind of expects; lots of feedback, howling sine waves, distortion and screaming, howling
vocals, screaming with pain and torture. I am no longer well versed in the world of industrial music, noise, and
power electronics, so I can only refer to the older posse, and I see influences of Whitehouse and especially
Ramleh, but also a touch of Con-Dom is present here, I think. This might not be the kind of thing that in 2016 is
on my daily musical platter, but I must admit I quite enjoyed it. Partly because L'eclipse Nue's isn't one long howl
of agony and ecstasy, but in fact shows quite a bit of variation in how he approaches his music. It doesn't have
to be necessarily very loud. Crazy but great. (FdW) - Vital Weekly

Review: L’eclipse Nue – Because I Hate You
11 Sep 2013 / Posted in: Record

Because I Hate You is lost and perversely playful; the psychologically shaken rants of a court jester losing his head, channelling anger into theatre and vice versa. Rhythm comes in debris and splatters – coughed up squelches of synthesiser and bass drums, funnelled up the stairways that lead down to Tokyo nightclubs – while sinister B-movie strings paint the ominous shadows of monsters waiting to strike, cradling L’eclipse Nue in a tension that, for all the static and screams attempting to punch holes in the cathartic membrane, never really gives way. It’s a busy record with a rickety rhythmic shape; the sound of a mind trying to structure itself in the midst of inane distraction and various psychotic haunts, with jarring synthesiser motifs and church organs scanning like flashlights over a junkyard of feedback and processed field recordings.

“I’m just waiting for the death machine” he brays, screaming with the looseness of someone swinging their own sanity above their head, possessing remnants of a fucked up lullaby too – but who’s really listening? Each vomiting squawk meets only an immediate, ceramic reflection (from within a cramped, dimly lit bathroom perhaps?), alluding to the complete lack of any recipient to L’eclipse Nue’s hysterical discharge. It’s a purely self-destructive process; negative energy isn’t expelled but momentarily regurgitated and swallowed back down, gradually turning its host’s insides to mush and bile as a vicarious listener looks on through an unseen crack in the wall.
Tagged: Because I Hate You, Dorei, L'eclipse Nue - Attn:magazine

L'Eclipse Nue - Zayin
Experimental - Industrial - Noise
Shiver To Death Recordings

22/11/2016, Dimi Brands


Deze zomer schreef ik een recensie voor Suicide Forest Sessions van Shroud Of Vapour, een soort van Japanoise supergroep wiens originele cd hier heel hartelijk ontvangen werd.

Mijn lovende woorden zetten een van de leden, Daniel Sine (oftewel L’Eclipse Nue) aan om me een bedankbrief te schrijven met bijgevoegd de nieuwe cd van zijn project, die in oktober officieel zou uitkomen.

Het getal zeven staat centraal bij deze release, Zayin is namelijk de zevende plaat van L’Eclipse Nue, die als officiële releasedatum 31 oktober meekreeg, de zevende verjaardag van het project. De verwijzing naar het getal zeven in de titel daarenboven is dat Zayin de zevende letter is in het Hebreeuwse alfabet.

777 dus, de goddelijke tegenhanger van het duivelse 666, en de oorspronkelijke gedachte van Sine achter deze release was dan ook om een meer positief album met een hemels thema te maken. Het eindresultaat draaide lichtjes anders uit, maar daarover straks meer.

Zayin is overigens het laatste album dat L’Eclipse Nue opnam in Japan alvorens te verkassen naar de Verenigde Staten.

In de begeleidende brief zegt Sine dat hij niet alleen enorm blij is met het resultaat, maar dat Zayin ook het laatste was waartoe hij in staat was te maken, alvorens zijn leven ontrafelde in complete chaos.

Op de hoes zien we Sine bewusteloos liggen in een plas kots, vergezeld van een naakte vrouw die, aldus Sine, een engel des doods moet voorstellen.

Zayin bulkt van de symboliek, we zijn dan ook blij met de begeleidende uitleg die Sine ons gaf, want dat plaatst de plaat meteen in het juiste daglicht.

‘Portal 503’ klinkt hoe het waarschijnlijk moet geklonken hebben in het hoofd van Sine, net voordat hij tegen de vlakte sloeg, een kakofonie aan geluiden die zich spiraalgewijs naar het cerebrum boren.

Eenmaal de geest het lichaam verlaten heeft, vertelt deze op ‘Affection In An Abyss’ de drijfveren van zijn gastheer, en dit op een manier die zeer doet denken aan pakweg Coil en Throbbing Gristle, de industriële geluiden op de achtergrond zetten de verknipte geest van Sine daarenboven nog eens dubbel en dik in de verf. Een dikke streep pink noise als afsluiter tracht alsnog het levenloze lichaam van Sine wakker te schudden, voor hem mag het misschien niet meer baten, deze luisteraar daarentegen veert meteen recht.

Metatron is de naam van een aartsengel, de enige wiens naam niet eindigt op “el”, op ‘Beneath The Hooves Of Metatron’ laat deze van zich horen, in de gedaante van Kaoru die gesproken tekst combineert met hysterisch geschreeuw. “Say goodbye” horen we haar op het einde van het nummer zeggen, nog een verwijzing naar de symbolische betekenis van deze plaat in de geschiedenis van L’Eclipse Nue. Hoe dan ook, ‘Beneath The Hooves Of Metatron’ is Japanoise op zijn best!

Graag willen we nog eens Coil namedroppen, met name op het qua titel veelbelovende nummer ‘Screaming Until I Go Deaf’, is deze industrial legende niet ver weg. De waanzin bouwt tergend traag op en doet ons bevroeden dat het niet makkelijk moet zijn om Daniel Sine te zijn. ‘Waiting Beside A Pit Of Sheep’s’ waarin “Be my voice now my body has gone” in canon weerklinkt, is een kort interludium dat doet terugdenken aan Coil ten tijde van Scatology.

Dat je bij Japanners gebeiteld zit voor een goede portie “weirde shit” is al langer geweten, een vlieger die ook opgaat voor ‘Rib’, alwaar violiste Sachiko haar instrument mag laten krijsen dat het een lieve lust is. Nog niet voldaan wat betreft waanzin: verkneukel je dan maar met ‘Crawling To Heaven On Abscessed Limbs’ alwaar fluisterzang gecombineerd met jammerkreten boven een muzikale cadans haast leiden tot een staat van hypnose.

‘How Do You Get To Heaven?’ vraagt Sine zich wanhopig af, en toont ineens de perverse relatie tussen mens en een misbruikende en onpeilbare God. Zoekend naar zielenrust lijkt hij rond te zweven tussen twee werelden. De onderwereld sluimert ook door op ‘Chtonic Lament’, de klaagzang waarover sprake in de titel is feitelijk een brutale noise uitbarsting die L’Eclipse Nue alsnog tracht leven in te blazen. Het omdraaien van het blad in de geschiedenis van het project symbolisch in toon gezet. Sine vertelde me nog in zijn brief dat hij zich in de nabije toekomst zou bezig houden met enkele split releases samen met enkele bevriende artiesten en kennissen. Alleszins een artiest om in de gaten te blijven houden want Nayin bewijst over de ganse lijn dat de man deksels goed weet hoe een verslavend album in elkaar te boksen.

Dimi Brands
22/11/2016 - Dark Entries