Jonathan Hultén, former guitarist and composer of Tribulation, which he left in 2020 to focus on his own music, will release the successor to Chants From Another Place in early 2025. Indeed, Eyes Of The Living Night, due for release on 31 January, serves as an elegant prelude to this new cycle.
The cold of January is both chilling and inspiring; we simply need to wrap ourselves up in a cocoon of pleasant music. While “pleasant” does not always rhyme with sweet or voluptuous for us, this time it does, as Jonathan Hultén takes us into a timeless universe that seems to be delicately deposited on a thread drawn with a loose pen, and which, in the manner of a tightrope walker, gracefully balances lightness and melancholy in a poetic swirl.
With its rich and varied composition, which gradually transforms while maintaining an immersive and enveloping overall harmony, the album takes the listener on a journey from the very first listen. The lively guitar of The Dream Was The Cure rubs shoulders with the almost country-like tunes of Vast Tapestry. In the gentleness of Riverflame, the notes seem to fall like snowflakes, and the combination of piano and accordion in Song Of Transience takes on baroque overtones, reminiscent of Lucas Lanthier's cabaret universe. Our ears oscillate between darker notes (Falling Mirage is like a haunted nursery rhyme) and much brighter ones, as if respecting a mysterious balance similar to our inner world.
The listening experience is unpredictable, unexpected at every second, and the listener must remain attentive throughout this journey, which is punctuated by various interludes acting as melodic threads linking the different chapters. The soul of this partition takes on its most beautiful gothic tones in Afterlife, while The Ocean's Arms exists like a breath carried by the wind with the passing of time. The extreme fragility that emerges from this album, tinged with folk, pop or gothic rock (like its introduction The Saga And The Storm), and wrapped in a voice of poignant precision, reflects its exploration: the human soul in the broadest sense, human relationships, fear, the search for freedom, creation and inner peace.
The aura of this work, as tangible as it is nebulous, becomes at once a refuge and a source of inspiration, and creates a bridge of empathy towards the artist as much as towards ourselves. It offers us a fascinating beautiful journey, whether introspective or simply aesthetic, providing a sweeter start than expected to the new year. We can't wait for the artist to return to France to see this on stage!
