SYD MATTERS - A GOSPEL OF SOME SORT - CREATURE

Some firsts you never forget. The first time you hear a Syd Matters song is one of those. The warm, soulful vocals and captivating melodies of End & Start Again - their atmospheric debut single released in 2003 that seemed to transcend time - revealed a truly unique band. It met with instant and enduring success in France and internationally.

Four albums followed between 2004 and 2011, each featuring a host of memorable songs: Black & White Eyes, Obstacles, To All Of You and I Might Float, which enthralled a whole generation. Their poignant concerts also left a lasting mark, as the musicians delivered performances that were both epic and intimate. In 2015, the soundtrack to the video game Life Is Strange - a truly global sensation with over twenty million copies sold - gave the band a new lease of life, introducing their music to a whole new audience worldwide.

Then Jonathan Morali, the singer-songwriter, took a step back while remaining as productive as ever in film, the stage, radio and television, and partnering over the years with the film directors Éric Rochant, Rémi Chayé, Thomas Litli and Mélanie Laurent. When composing soundtracks, the musician - unbound by the conventions of the song form - gives free rein to his desires and intuitions, engaging with the very substance of sounds and their underlying emotions.

After a nearly fifteen-year gap, Jonathan and his musicians are back with a new LP, the captivating « A Gospel of Some Sort ». The single Many Years in the Making, released in the spring, marked their comeback, sounding much like a manifesto: ‘And after many years in the making, here I sing…’ That same voice, like the very first time. And that very unique, timeless atmosphere, at once age-old and synthetic.

The album is bookended by two iconic tracks: Armageddon Time, in which a strange choir, accompanied by a piano and Jonathan’s magnetic voice, expands majestically, like a prayer rising to the heavens. “This song serves as an introduction to the album’s themes: ostracism, judgement, guilt, the figure of the devil…” the singer confides. At the other end, Nuclear, a trippy ballad “born of a recurring dream of desolate landscapes and visions of the future, evokes in turn the end of the world… or its beginning.”

Syd Matters fully reveals its uniqueness: imbued with a gentle melancholy, the songs are patiently crafted, drawing as much from the songwriting of the 1960s and the freedom of the 1970s as from more contemporary electronic sounds. Guitar arpeggios, vocals and synthesizers interact and intertwine, producing an ageless and mesmerizing folk music.

The lyrics, dreamlike and mysterious, remain nonetheless deeply personal. “For me, A Gospel of Some Sort is an LP about silence and solitude, about making one’s way through the night with hesitant steps, about fleeing with long strides, about drifting and treading a path less travelled, about doubt but also about light.”

Both unsettling and strangely comforting, the expansive songwriting of « A Gospel of Some Sort » is remarkable, as highlighted in the beautiful The Holy Ghost, a lullaby for a child: ‘Here is to you my child, for you know when your life gets wild…’ If Syd’s music—blending softness and darkness—moves and soothes us, it is precisely because it breathes humanity in seemingly demanding themes, resulting in compelling albums.

Syd matters is set to return to the stage this autumn, touring France and Europe, including a date at the Olympia in Paris and The Garage in London—both already sold out. They will be performing their new songs, as well as those tracks we know by heart and cherish. After many years in the making, here they sing.