Mayerling “Cut Up”

13 May 2013 — Selina Begum

With their debut full-length Cut Up, Besançon, France-based Mayerling have produced a dark and eerie debut album with minimalistic vocals and shadowy instrumentals that make for a soothing and mellowed listening experience.

Softly uttered French words surface from the intro to "Pure as Gold," a dark and atmospheric lo-fi track imbued with interspersed lighter tones. These contrasts in the band's music encapsulates the different genres that influence their album, the instrumental leading up to the climactic finish being reminiscent of dream-pop giants, The XX. "Pure as Gold" seems befitting for an indie movie score, with its beautiful crescendos and delicately layered vocals; the tones of the track iridescent and acoustically buoyant.

"La Mort N’en Saura Rien" ('Death will not Know') also delves into the deep and far reaches of the subconscious, using submerged organ sounds, promising to take us on some mysterious journey. Vocalist Sylvain Bombled’s reverb punctuates the solid synths, while the varying instruments permeate the lyrics. What Mayerling have proven to do so well with Cut Up is to produce music that is gradual and unrushed, yet always sustaining intrigue.

The music from these two singles generates a cinematic grandeur, nuanced effortlessly by the subterranean sounds through the fusion of patiently prolonged uses of synths, violoncello, guitars and keyboard. The band have made an album that goes beyond words and seeps through the darkest parts of the mind. Progressive and rhythmically immersive, this makes for a thought-provoking soundscape, where one can drift off into the unknown.

Cut Up is out tomorrow, May 14, via Hands in the Dark.