Swiss six-piece L’Eclair have been turning heads for a minute with their genre-busting twist on instrumental music that transports funk, jazz and psych into the 21st century. After years of honing their sound and refining their style, Confusions shows a clear vision for what L’Eclair want their music to sound like. Surrounded by groove, the album flies deep into the universes of jazz, electronica and polyrhythms.
A departure from their earlier live to tape releases—where the six musicians got together, laid down tracks in one or two takes and then moved on to the next project—-with this record they were afforded more time to reflect and revise. Recorded in four sessions spread out over nine months during the pandemic, the songwriting is more considered and deliberate but with a rough hewn edge and plenty of room for experimentation. This freedom gives L’Eclair the ability to reflect and revise, allowing them to focus more on how compositions are arranged and structured, making their music tighter and more concise as a result. Their mastery of groove and rhythm is down to a science and they keep all the beauty and emotion they’ve come to embody in their work.
They also present something that defies easy description; it calls to mind disparate influences, from Tangerine Dream and CAN to Aphex Twin, MF DOOM and Dilla – wide-ranging soundscapes, dense textures and complex beats that take you on a trip through time and space. It’s a unique experience, combining the ambient, groove, jazz and funk influences L’Eclair identify with and showing a cohesive vision.
With Confusions, L’Eclair presents a fully formed sound, full of light and shade, flowing effortlessly from start to finish. This is music you can settle down with and lose yourself in, a little bit of Swiss magic for the ears; perfect for waving goodbye to 2021 and welcoming 2022 in style.
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