May 24, 2023 - Self-released
As I write, I realize how much I’ve devalued the effort by putting it out into the world for you to enjoy. To realize the work is to give and continue giving. I feast on your attention while my emotional pantry is bare. That’s the duality of any creative endeavor—the hunger we feel that fuels the flames isn’t always easy to maintain as the flames grow. Many of us fortunately are not starving in the sense that our stomachs are empty, but there is a yearning inside of us that requires action more than others. Making is an audacious act. It is commonly impractical. It is extremely human.
French musician Nuit Oceān’s debut album Burning memories contains the rawness that I crave when experiencing an artist’s work. These are songs of longing, of loss, of dealing with painful times, highly emotionally charged with melancholy. Fatalistic daydreams and blue tragedies in minor keys with hip-hop beats drenched in honey, moving slowly over deep, dark cavernous basslines and decorated with an orchestra. His voice melts in and out of the instrumentation, and everything flows together like watercolor on plastic, moving, changing, chaotic harmony. The production is superb, the compositions are minimal, but not at the expense of intimacy, thank goodness. Nuit Oceān’s presence and close proximity are visceral in these tracks, as though he has invited you into his home studio to be quiet and listen. A musician to lure you, a poet at heart.
There are certainly other artists big and small taking a similar baroque approach, with songs designed to tug at your empathy, an album as a series of moody dramatic acts with the clarity of theatrical lighting. I feel many of these other artists have fallen into the trap of their own bloated party trick because evoking powerful feelings can conjure intoxication in your audience readily, even if the songs fall flat because you aren’t risking anything. Nuit Oceān stands out in this space because he stays close to the mic, literally and figuratively, while allowing the drama to unfold around him. Even with the watery distortion applied to paint his voice in the color of the instrumentation, you can hear the clicks of his mouth when he sings, the gravel in the throat underneath that heightens the beautiful melodies. You can feel him write these words down as he walks away from a fresh breakup and into a realm of loss. Nothing is hidden in this rich, open emotional pantry. This is what it feels like to have your heart cut open and butterflied.
My favorite moments on Burning memories are when things are extra pared back. ‘Without You’ is a great example of this, in singer-songwriter style, with its simple guitar strumming and backup vocal underscores. It is a beautiful song. Other highlights include the playful vocal samples glittering around wolven wails in ‘Lost my way’ and the gut-wrenching sentimental swales of ‘Real friends.’
In this day and age, honesty is a generous act and a leap off a cliff. With Burning memories, Nuit Oceān shares the rapture of free-falling in slow motion. ☔