Tag: Baptiste Desmares

Review – Esthesis – Watching Worlds Collide

Esthesis is a progressive & alternative rock project formed and led by French multi-instrumentalist Aurélien Goude (music, lyrics, keyboards, vocals, guitars, bass and other stuff). The current line up is composed of three other musicians : Baptiste Desmares (lead guitar), Marc Anguill (bass) and Arnaud Nicolau (drums). Esthesis music is characterized by many influences (british rock, film score, jazz, ambient, metal, electronic music…) and primarily based on emotion and ambiences. 

After a first sold out EP in 2019 (‘Raising Hands’), Esthesis released a debut album in November 2020 (‘The Awakening’).

7 new songs, 7 encounters and stories between different worlds that intersect and collide, with varied atmospheres, ‘Watching Worlds Collide’ promises to be a real step up from their already impressive debut release.

Oh boy, has Aurélien really explored his notable creativity on these seven new tracks, this album is a lesson in cool understatement and the mantra of less is more. Wonderful jazz grooves combine with electro funk undertones and glorious ambient back grounds to deliver something rather sublime and really emotive. Add in some sharp suited rock vibes, just enough to give the music a needed harder edge now and again, and Esthesis deliver effortless style in spades.

Notable highlights include uber-cool opener Amber, as laid back and groove laden as they come, with Baptiste’s intense guitar playing, the melancholy piano-driven Skimming Stones where Aurélien’s heartrending vocal shines supreme and the lengthy 57th Street, an object lesson in combining the stylish sensibilities of smokey jazz grooves with an almost 50’s noir film score to deliver a slick, elegant twelve minutes of musical excellence, all wrapped up in a sharp suit.

But there isn’t a duff track on the album, first single Place Your Bets has that discordant rock edge to it and is mean and moody and Wandering Cloud is a 50’s New York minute in musical from. Vertigo has the electro-dance beats that make it a toe-tapping delight and album closer Through My Lens finishes things off with a laid back, sax infused, swagger, all backed up by a stunning solo from Baptiste Desmares.

Overall, ‘Watching Worlds Collide’ is a seriously good album with tons of Gallic flair, intelligence and inventiveness, it is also the coolest thing you are going to hear this year and I love it!

Released 19th August, 2022.

Order the album here:

Watching Worlds Collide | Esthesis (bandcamp.com)

Review – Esthesis – The Awakening – by Progradar

Esthesis is a French progressive/alternative rock band, their music is characterised by many different influences (70’s british rock, film score, ambient, metal, pop…) and is primarily based on emotion and ambiences. 

Created and led by French multi-instrumentalist Aurélien Goude (music, lyrics, keyboards, vocals, guitars and bass), the current line up is completed by Baptiste Desmares (lead guitar), Marc Anguill (bass) and Florian Rodrigues (drums).  They released their first EP ‘Raising Hands’ in January 2019.

The band’s highly anticipated debut album ‘The Awakening’ is a thought provoking, intense musical experience full of ambient, cinematic soundscapes. The band allow the music to grow and expand in your conscious as the melancholic chords and Pink Floyd like electronica lead you on a mysterious musical journey.

Wistfully indulgent guitar tones overlay the elegant brush stokes of the sombre piano and elegantly delivered bass and drums while Goude’s pensive vocal leads the way. Listening to tracks like opener Downstream and the stylish High Tide, you find yourself immersed completely into the album’s concept of the notion of identity (awakening, quest and loss of identity), the intelligent songwriting and excellent musicianship allowing exquisitely refined progress.

No Soul To Sell is deliciously dark in its subtle atmosphere and Chameleon, with its graceful acoustic guitar, is polished and precise. Title track The Awakening is an apprehensive instrumental that has me on the edge of my seat with its repetitive key strokes and random sounds that wash over you as the tempo increases and a harder, strident guitar tone takes over. The album closes with the powerful and dramatic track Still Far To Go, a riveting and mesmeric song full of emotion that stays with you, holding your attention, until the last note fades away.

What with lockdown and real life getting in the way, it has taken me quite a while to write this review and, in a way, I’m glad it did. ‘The Awakening’ is one of those albums that grows on you with more and more listens, you find little nuances after every play that give it more soul and depth. Esthesis have produced a seminal slow-burning debut that, in my opinion, is one of the best in recent memory and you’d be doing yourself a disservice if you didn’t add it to your list of must have albums.

Released November 14th, 2020

Order the album here:

Esthesis – The Awakening (smarturl.it)