Cyclones, large storm systems, usually wreak havoc and destruction when they form. However, for French artist Notre Dame De La Colline, they have inspired the beautiful ambient instrumental music found on the recent album “Les Contes du Cyclone”. Music that seeks gentle moments via subdued guitar picking, alluring brass from collaborator Luc Lagier, and, most prominently, roaming arrangements that never seem to settle, constantly searching for a resolution that never quite arrives. Therein seems to be the point of the project; that resolution is not some goal to attain, that resolution can be found within the happenings of life.

While the real name of Notre Dame De La Colline is not something readily available to the public, we know they are from Nancy, France, and are the founder of the collective Founding our own Glorious Chapels. Personal identity aside, the composer exudes personality on these pieces. From the epicly investigatory prettiness of “Neiges d’antan”, with its sly key changes and celestial ambitions, the muted post-rock flavoured “Le vent se lève” to the more sinister and uncomfortable energy of “Ce qui s’effondre”, the guitar work across the album is intimate and expressive, with Notre Dame De La Colline offering accidentals in their playing; you can hear the strings clattering and stopping against exacting skin. Elsewhere on the album, “Là où le cyclone s’apaisera” includes shimmering xylophonic strikes, and the closing “Le chant du fracas” includes voice recordings of an insomniac woman musing on the strangeness of a nihilistic conscious mind stuck between the sleep and waking world.

In the end, Les Contes du Cyclone creates an atmosphere of calm inquisitiveness, one that invites the listener into the eye of a storm to explore a world that is mostly beautiful, but that doesn’t ignore the elements of chaos that surround it, landing at something that feels genuinely alive.

★★★★