What a pleasant surprise is the new album by French darkwave producer Spiryt, entitled Blood Twins. At El Garaje, we have always support his music but with this new album, thanks in part to the impressive collaboration on the voice and lyrics of Kimberly (Bow Ever Down) he has managed to express all this musical ideas in the best possible way.
Singer and composer Kimberly Kornmeier, (a name to follow if you already don’t do it) started her own band Bow Ever Down in a far away 1998 in the North American city of Maine. Since then, they have recorded four full albums that will please fans of darkwave, EBM or synthpop. Instead, Spiryt is the project of French musician JLuc Courchet. JLuc’s first musical steps were in the band No Answer, active from 1986 to 1995. When this project ended, he continued on his own, under his name, composing an album called Sad Songs that was never released. But JLuc, now under the moniker of Spiryt has gone on, and managed to record a few albums, releasing them either on his Bandcamp or in self-founded editions. Jaen Luc has been really productive and released periodically albums and singles that, when we had time, we had reviewed here. His discography includes a namesake album from 2018, the two parts of Sous Emprise, Deadly Thoughts and this new Blood Twins released in May.
Some of these albums have been used a basis for the creation of this new work and so, here we can find some songs that we already knew in its instrumental version. This way, the initial “In cold blood” should ring a bell to everybody who listened to Deadly Thoughts. Here, it gets a new dimension thanks to the fantastic interpretation of Kimberly that moves the song closer to the world of Portishead, one of the favorite bands of Spiryt. But, although some influences can be traced in this album, the majority of the tracks are quite original and present some common elements that can be found all thru Blood Twins, like the mix on industrial music and oriental vibes that can be found in “A speck of light”. “V” was the second single of the album and it’s a dramatic track where both the voice and the music really stand out. “Breathing out and breathing in” is, no doubt, one of the best songs, where the oriental vibes are back, giving a touch of mystery. Another passionate track is the ethereal “Heaven”, another great composition and another prove of the art of Kimberly as singer. We already knew “Effigie” as it was released as single and it also appeared in instrumental form in the first album of Spiryt. It reminds me of the work of Craig Amstrong in Massive Attack‘s Protection and it’s another of the great moments of the album. “Perturbation” is a powerful track where we can find again some industrial sounds. The passionate “Paradoxe” is a beautiful and sensual track that can reminds us of the most calm songs by Portishead. “Enter the dream” is the most original track of the album, with surprising drums and a captivating oriental atmosphere. The album finishes with another ethereal track “The poison” that closes this magnificient album in the best way possible. A great collaboration that we hope will be even more fruitful in the future.
