Juste une Trace

NEWS

Ni!L presents the album “Saṃsāra”

Saṃsāra is a stoner rock album, a little garage and grunge, sung in French.
For Ni!L, the Saṃsāra is a reflection of a thirst for existence, of successive rebirths. The 10 titles are stages of an unending journey where everyone meets the ups and downs of life, while seeking liberation. Cycles of suffering and rebirth follow. Inspired by dark or light sounds, but also by poetry and spirituality, Ni!L offers a carefully thought out album but all in spontaneity, without frills to keep the impact and flexibility of a duo, the power of a tandem. The formula is quite surprising but the result confirms that everything is possible with time, feet on the ground and head in clouds.

Each title is a metaphor that explores deep themes of our time. A first peculiarity opens the album: “Smarana“, which means “remember” in Sanskrit, is the link between the old sound of Ni!L and the new two-way balance. Samples of the two previous self-produced albums are integrated here and there throughout the instrumental title, as a mise en abye of the transition: from one album to another, from one track to another, but also from one state to another, physical or emotional.

Bardenas“, the first single presented in mid-June, evokes the personal crossing of the desert, the inner journey, as well as the quest for knowledge, truth and meaning.
In a perfect «grunge tradition», the concealed depression (En Surface), the madness of male/female relationships and moral harassment (Le Banquet), or the grip of toxic relationships and the difficulty to free oneself from them (Entaille), are as many societal subjects approached more or less frontally.

Serveur” reminds us of the importance of authentic human relationships in a world that evolves at the pace of ultimately antisocial networks. It encourages us to unplug the plug and get away from these 2.0 poisons that are gangrene the web.
Sunyata“, an instrumental title, serves as a link with «Tamiser», a piece with a more heavy aesthetic, highlighting the devastating consequences of climate change on our planet and the frustration in the face of collective inaction.

So yes, the subjects are heavy (Entaille) and reflect a society often abused. Yet Ni!L’s approach is almost comforting. We don’t fall into terror. We hear a real indie rock album.
Like a lighthouse in the dark, “Toucher le Nord” guides us on the paths of the stoner. It evokes commitment, the future, otherness. This title is resolutely bright and dynamic, like a promise of hope in a tormented world.
«Saṃsāra» is the eponymous title that ends the album but also means «transition». Music seems to take over everything (there will probably be a sequel, perhaps successive existences?).

In summary, the album “Saṃsāra” is a musical journey in a grunge and sincere atmosphere. Ni!L invite the listener to dive into the meanderings of the human soul. It reminds us that we are all made of shadow and light, joy and sadness, love and pain.

More about Samsara

More about Ni!L

Bardenas by Ni!L

The stoner rock duo Ni!L plunges us into the vastness of a desert in northern Spain with BARDENAS, the first single available from the album Samsara. (Released on September 15, 2023).

Dark riffs, powerful drums, French lyrics, big rock inspired by the grunge and stoner of American bands like Soundgarden or Queen Of The Stone Age: these are the ingredients of Ni!L.

Filmed with a drone in the Monegros desert stretching over the provinces of Zaragoza and Huesca in northern Spain, the BARDENAS video offers breathtaking landscapes and puts into perspective the human loneliness in the wild and inhospitable vastness of an arid region.

The title BARDENAS is, according to Ni!L, “the symbol of the different crossings in our personal desert, the different stages of our evolution, of our quest. But also, the very symbolism of the desert that we must all face in uncertain times: may it be in the disappearance of a humanity, of contact, in this drought that waits to be irrigated, if only by tears, or this emptiness, the deprivation of the essence of being and existing.”

“What is beautiful in the desert is that it hides a source somewhere”. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

Ni!L invites us to find this hidden source in ourselves, to draw from our inner resources to overcome the difficulties of life and even in the most difficult moments, there is always hope and beauty to be found.

BARDENAS, the first single of the album SAMSARA to be released on September 15, 2023, an album where energies and dualities coexist: a very rock music, grunge but with a spiritual and meditative dimension that simply encourages the listener to let go.

Film directed by Guillaume Brunet
Editing : Ni!L
Chief operator, colorimetry, calibration : Guillaume Brunet
Technical team : Delphine Rigot, Jean-Michel Gaudemer

More about Samsara

More about Ni!L

Songs for Louisa on video

With “Songs for Louisa“, the composer and bassist Laurent Bonnot presents an original repertoire. He is accompanied by saxophonists Christophe Monniot and Ricardo Izquierdo, and drummer Eric Échampard. It’s OuLiPo Quartet!

OuLiPo Quartet’s main goal is to let go of the listener. Whether he is a seasoned musician, a neophyte or a music lover, no one can relate to metrics or try to analyze. You just have to rock and travel.

All titles are put in images by Lucas Ranoux and are available on Youtube.

More about the project

More about musicians

Energy Master Loc, a Tai-Chi title

“Energy Master Loc” opens the album TRÊN DYDD and pays tribute to Gary Brunton‘s Tai-Chi teacher, Tan Loc Nguyen, whose art and practice helped Brunton improve his physical and mental approach to the double bass.

This is the first title for the new release !!! Release date : may 19th 2023.

More about the project

Gary Brunton – Double Bass
François Jeanneau – Soprano Saxophone
Andrea Michelutti – Drums
Emil Spanyi – Piano

More about musicians

Energy Master Loc
Music by Gary Brunton
Published by Éditions Amoc
Video by Lucas Ranoux

Produced by Bojan Z and Gary Brunton for Juste Une Trace

  • For any partnership or special project

    Please use the contact form to get in touch with us