Soror Dolorosa unveil another suave gothic rocker with their next video single ‘Obsidian Museum’ which provides super cool 90s vibes while outside the European summer heats up. This track is taken from the forthcoming new full-length of the French post-punk gothic rockers, which is entitled “Mond” (the German word for ‘Moon’), and has been scheduled for release on October 4, 2024.

“This is a second song written all alone by Jean-Baptiste Marquet where the voice came across fluently like on ‘Tear It Up’ and Hervé Carles had this idea of a galactic break to build up a massive finale”, mastermind Andy Julia states.

“It is a catchy mid-tempo track that takes you far to the horizon. Like so often in our music, this song is made for long drives and road trips. The ‘Obsidian Museum’ is the inner temple of adoration that we have in the intimacy of love. It appears like a mystical and darkened place where its walls, floor, and ceiling are reflecting souls without distortion through moonbeams.

I imagined a whole place like this, infinite and intimate, where there can only be two of us. Like Adam and Eve chased from paradise, ‘Obsidian Museum’ is a response to the human condition, a magic door to escape from reality and to travel into outer space to reach the moon in an idealistic, orgasmic cosmic trip. Quite a vision, right?”

Creatures of the night probably miss the 80s of the last century badly. Post-punk and new wave reached glorious heights and their epic explorations of mixing hard guitars and driving electronics dominated alternative dance floors.

The subtle eroticism, the electric excitement, and dark musical pleasure, it is all gone, many nocturnal prowlers sigh – both, those who have lived through this past and long for it but also the ones who were born too late and wish themselves back into a nostalgically glorified era. Fear not! Soror Dolorosa come flying to the rescue on black wings. Their fourth album “Mond” has musical fangs that draw delicious sonic blood on the first listening experience.

The classic dark post-punk and wave elements are all there, and so is the overwhelming enticement to let your feet move in an ecstatic dance under the eponymous moon. Yet Soror Dolorosa are no peddlers of stale snake oil nostalgia. The French band has updated the classic feel with a massive sound fitting for the new millennium. Mix and mastering of “Mond” have been successfully entrusted to Perturbator mastermind James Kent, who has polished this epic album with a lush vibrant power and ethereal coldness.

The remaining founding members, vocalist Andy Julia and bass player Hervé Carles have meanwhile welcomed guitarist Jean-Baptiste Marquet to their fold. It is likely that his fresh contributions as a composer and arranger have had an influence in the strong dance grooves that permeate “Mond”. These are audibly more prominent than on the previous albums “Blind Scenes” (2011), “No More Heroes” (2013), and “Apollo” (2017).

Lyrically, Soror Dolorosa remain firmly on the path they have wandered from the start, when the band was originally founded in Toulouse in 2001 and finally emerged with the “Severance” EP in 2009. Their inspiration has again come in part from poets and writers such as William Blake and Edgar Alan Poe. The romantic and cathartic emotional landscapes are still at the heart of the band.

With “Mond”Soror Dolorosa are reaching far out of the solar sphere and into deep outer space where the musical past and future become entwined to create an exciting new chapter in the band’s evolution. 

Guest contributions:
Nicolas Horvath – piano on ‘Broken Love’
James Kent – arrangements on all songs
Joris Brunet – additional arrangements

Recorded by Soror Solorosa at home studio, Paris (FR)
Mixing by James Kent at Perturbator home studio, Paris (FR)
Mastering by James Kent at Perturbator home studio, Paris (FR)

Cover artwork by Andy Julia
Layout by Hannah Hassouly & Andy Julia 

Band photos by (c) Mathilde Richard

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Nicolae Baldovin

Editor-in-Chief at CVLTARTES
Don’t take it personally.