Releasing an album about global contagion and the end of the world way before it became the norm (i.e. 2019), Le Cygne Noir announced himself to the world last year with his debut ‘Shadow of a Wrecking Ball’. Writing nine eerily pre-emptive songs for a record dubbed a “Zombie Apocalypse concept album”, given the way 2020 has turned out, he’s perhaps more entitled than anyone to write one more...
Released on 31st July 2020 via the Cherry Red label, that song is: ‘Time Like This’, a brand-new standalone single from Le Cygne Noir.
Quarantined along with the rest of the world, Le Cygne Noir found his sanity slipping and imagination running wild as days, hours and minutes blurred indistinguishably. Tearing himself away from the schedule of endless re-runs and misery on the TV, he decided to create a dystopian thriller of his own.
Unspooling in a cascade of bubbling primordial synthesisers, flaming guitar solos, and twitching time signature changes; ‘Time Like This’ is the mind-altering result: an 8-minute creation of Floydian vision and John Carpenter-esque lunacy. With lyrics musing on a surreal situation rapidly spinning out of control and weighed-down by the eternity lockdown, sci-fi couplets like: “I’ll see you in a thousand years, I’ll see you when the virus clears” are sure to resonate with listeners everywhere.
Written and produced at home by Le Cygne Noir himself, the track also sees appearances from some formidable players including Neil Taylor (Tears For Fears), Mark Gunstone (The Blunders) and Cornelius Webb (The Webb Brothers); each of whom virtually added their own touches of class from their bases of isolation. From its cerebral, cinematic beginnings, through to its dreamy soundscapes, and an emphatic no-holds-barred crescendo, it's an exhilarating journey with twists and turns around every corner.
The track arrives with a kaleidoscopic animated video, by Samuel Morgan at Automated Art. Watch here: https://youtu.be/I-xTfIEa010
Though little is known about the identity of Le Cygne Noir, last year the enigmatic songwriter stepped-up to the spotlight to unveil his debut album ‘Shadow of a Wrecking Ball’. Rippling with musical innovation and instrumental expertise, the record enlisted a stellar who’s-who of classic rock alumni of the highest order including Julianne Regan (founder and lead singer of All About Eve), Neil Taylor (Tears for Fears, Robbie Williams), Cal Campbell (Beck), and Caroline Dale ( U2, David Gilmour) among other talents of the music world.
Enrapturing listeners with its epic scale and bombast, the record was hailed by CLASSIC POP as a "preposterously entertaining, conceptual apocalypse”, whereas LOUDER THAN WAR championed the record as “a synth laden rock opera that leans between Muse and War of The Worlds”.
Opening the new year with the ‘Last Day Of My Life’ EP, Le Cygne Noir now continues his unpredictable and exhilarating narrative with the epic standalone single ‘Time Like This’.
Le Cygne Noir - 'Time Like This' will be available digitally - 31 July 2020 (via Cherry Red Records).