Year of No Light "Les Maîtres Fous" LP

Haunting, discordant and deeply unsettling, ‘Les Maîtres Fous’ (‘The Mad Masters’) was written by French post-metal collective Year of No Light in response to French filmmaker Jean Rouch’s controversial 1950’s docufiction of the same name.

Captured live in 2015, this arresting piece of music is now available to hear for the first time in a decade.

Commissioned by Musée Du Quai Branly in Paris for their 2012 ‘L’Invention Du Sauvage’ exhibition, trance-metal pioneers Year of No Light approached the ritual practices of the Hauka movement as depicted in the film and responded with their uniquely hypnotic heaviness.

Performed only twice, once at the exhibition on the 6th January, 2012 and again in Bordeaux on the 29th January, 2015; this release is a live recording of the second and final performance of ‘Les Maîtres Fous’. Whilst Year of No Light have a long history of collaboration with forward-thinking filmmakers and visual artists, the sensitivity of this documentary’s problematic subject matter and the intensity of the band’s performance made this performance both a physically and emotionally demanding experience; something that can be keenly felt upon listening.

FOR FANS OF: Neurosis, Cult of Luna, SWANS, ISIS, Russian Circles, My Bloody Valentine, Chelsea Wolfe