Release Date: 20^th September 2019

Label: Kscope

Formats: CD, DL, LP

Introspective and atmospheric rock from Poitiers, France. PROG has called Klone “sleek, impassioned and thoroughly modern.” We add our two penn’orth.

“We want our music to resonate in the cosmos,” say the band. An ambitious aim, which sounds like a hint at Ted Hughes’ hero The Iron Man whose victory as the defender of the Earth against the space-bat-angel-dragon exiled the creature into deep space to forever sing and create the music of the spheres. But enough of the literary culture and onto an album that searches and explores in a travelogue of musical discovery.

A title that refers to “the wandering of the mind” it’s clear to see why the six-piece find inspiration from another of our favourite bands and new labelmates Anathema. Both are bands who aren’t afraid to delve deep and tap into the emotions. Certainly, singer  Yann Ligner can’t be accused of not throwing himself into an impassioned and committed vocal performance. In both Yonder (album opener and gap bridging piece to The Last Companion that concluded 2015’s Here Comes The Sun) and in particular the thrill and shrill of Breach. The former is typical of Le Grand Voyage in its story of a quest for peace, accompanied by a video that makes the most of the expansive spaces of the Bardenas desert in Spain (while marvelling in the fact that bands still make the effort to seek out locations and invest in the effort to illustrate their music in the best possible frame).

Le Grand Voyage isn’t all widescreen soundscapes though or an attempt to create grand Floydian comparisons. A band excited by the opportunities of progressive music,  The Great Oblivion shows that they have a hard edge that almost veers into one of the Metal genres but at the core they manage to retain the essence of  Rock music with soul – countering the “sometimes Rock music has no soul” argument, underpinned by a sincerity and aim to go deep enough to touch the audience.

Their idealistic aim to reach higher and to channel something stronger and deeper might be alternatively challenging or possibly unrealistic (you can understand the Floyd associations) but with Le Grand Voyage, Klone have created a piece of work that’s ambitiously confident and engaging.

Watch the video for Hidden Passenger from the album here:

Klone online: Kscope Website, Facebook, Twitter, Bandcamp,  Instagram