Making melogaze since 2007
Short Biography
Vision Eternel is a Canadian-American melogaze band whose musical creations focus on emotion, heartbreak and love. Melogaze, coined by founder Alexander Julien, has been described as a blend of ambient, space rock, shoegaze, ethereal, post-rock, emo, and melodrama. The band was founded in January 2007 in Edison, New Jersey, United States, and is currently based in Montreal, Canada.
For Farewell Of Nostalgia is Vision Eternel’s newest concept extended play. It is a narrative of how emotionally devastating falling in love too fast can be and the aftermath of a heartbreak. Sometimes, looking for tender affection can be detrimental; this tale of infatuation, wounding absence, intimacy, melancholia and never-ending nostalgia intends to make the listener feel every bit of that. A short story accompanies the release, which recounts the events that influenced this concept extended play. A deluxe edition of Echoes From Forgotten Hearts will be released on February 14, 2024.
Vision Eternel’s releases include:
- Seul Dans L’obsession (EP, 2007)
- Un Automne En Solitude (EP, 2008)
- An Anthology Of Past Misfortunes (Compilation, 2009)
- Abondance De Périls (EP, 2010)
- The Last Great Torch Song (EP, 2012)
- Echoes From Forgotten Hearts (EP, 2015)
- An Anthology Of Past Misfortunes (Boxed Set, 2018)
- For Farewell Of Nostalgia (EP, 2020)
- Echoes From Forgotten Hearts (Deluxe Edition, 2024)
Full Biography
Vision Eternel is a Canadian-American ambient-rock band currently based in Montreal, Canada. Since 2007, the band has been crafting a style of its own, a genre which founding band member and songwriter Alexander Julien coined melogaze. Melogaze has been described as a blend of ambient, space rock, post-rock, shoegaze, emo and melodrama. Julien painstakingly recounts emotions from past heartbreaks and failed relationships into instrumental concept albums.
Vision Eternel was founded by guitarist Alexander Julien in January of 2007, while living in Edison, New Jersey, United States. Initially, the band was part of the Triskalyon collective; a group of bands with common beliefs who shared band members and had their own record label, Mortification Records. And so, Vision Eternel was immediately signed to Mortification Records and the band’s debut extended play, Seul Dans L’obsession, less than a month later, on February 14, 2007. Released on compact disc and digitally, Seul Dans L’obsession was a concept extended play depicting the phases of love and a relationship; from meeting a girl and falling in love, through the troubled relationship and its break-up, to finally having to painfully move on. Because of its conceptual theme, the extended play was deliberately released on Valentine’s Day.
A music video was produced for the first single, “Love Within Narcosis”, which was promoted exclusively on YouTube during the first half of 2007. A second single was released in the summer of 2007 for “Love Within Isolation”, which helped Vision Eternel peak on the independent Myspace charts, reaching No. 6 on the Shoegaze chart, No. 21 on the Ambient chart, and No. 52 on the Experimental chart. To this day, Seul Dans L’obsession remains Mortification Records’ best-selling and most downloaded release.
Beginning in the summer of 2007, Julien experimented with the idea of expanding the band with other members. Electric and classical guitarist Philip Altobelli, who had been a member of Triskalyon with his solo project Darklink, and had also briefly played with Julien in the atmospheric black metal band Vision Lunar, was the first person to try out. Although Altobelli only remained with the band for a brief period, he introduced several innovative concepts, which Julien further developed with other members. Altobelli went on to become a classical guitar instructor.
In July of 2007, Vision Eternel relocated to Montreal, Quebec, Canada, when Julien enrolled in the audio engineering college, Recording Arts Canada. Prior to leaving the United States, Julien recorded Vision Eternel’s sophomore extended play, Un Automne En Solitude, though it remained unreleased until March of 2008. In January of 2008, Julien recruited acoustic rhythm guitarist Nidal Mourad and lead electric guitarist Adam Kennedy, as Vision Eternel’s new members. Both were Recording Arts Canada school-mates. Mourad had previously sung in the Alberta metalcore band Natesment, while Kennedy was from the Ottawa, Ontario region and had dabbled in hard rock, hip hop and electronics, performing under the names AK & Lord V, Gospel Of Wisdom and Orpheus. As a trio, Vision Eternel successfully re-worked two older songs into expansive post-rock/space rock/indie rock-sounding material. However, the full-band version of Vision Eternel quickly parted ways when Mourad was motivated to launch a solo career as an acoustic singer-songwriter and disc jockey. Since leaving Vision Eternel, Mourad has performed under the name Ziko Ghost, while Kennedy established himself as a multi-instrumentalist studio engineer and producer, and has performed with Beyond The Dune Sea, 1993, Acid Cross, Owl Eyes Project and Wake The Wolf.
Instead of abandoning Vision Eternel, Julien decided to continue the band as a solo project. On March 14, 2008, Vision Eternel’s second extended play, Un Automne En Solitude, was finally released on compact disc and digitally through Mortification Records. This extended play introduced Vision Eternel’s greater story-line concept, the theme of “boy meets girl, boy loses girl; boy meets girl again, boy loses girl again”, which was partly influenced by Julien’s favorite film, Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo. As such, each Vision Eternel release recounts another loss, another section, in the greater story-line. Un Automne En Solitude featured the single “Season In Absence”, which saw two music videos produced: one directed in 2008 by Belgian artist Niels Geybels (from the bands Koester, Mortiuri, Ashtoreth Incesti, Trancelike Void, Sequences, False Moniker and Citadel Swamp); and another directed by Julien in 2010.
In September of 2008, Vision Eternel was signed to Abridged Pause Recordings, announcing a split 7″ vinyl with the Californian post-rock band Ethereal Beauty. This release was highly promoted, but continuously delayed for two years, until it was eventually cancelled when Ethereal Beauty broke up in 2010 after failing to record its share of songs. Vision Eternel’s material for the split was later reworked and released on the 2012 extended play The Last Great Torch Song.
On February 14, 2009, to highlight the two-year anniversary of the band’s debut, Japanese record label Frozen Veins Records released the compact disc compilation An Anthology Of Past Misfortunes. The Japanese-exclusive release compiled the first two extended plays (Seul Dans L’obsession and Un Automne En Solitude) along with three previously-unreleased b-sides, and came bundled with a poster.
Vision Eternel’s first release through Abridged Pause Recordings was unveiled on March 9, 2010, with the band’s third extended play, Abondance De Périls. The release was not only mastered by ex-band member Kennedy, but it was also released on the same date as Kennedy’s band Beyond The Dune Sea’s self-titled debut album (also signed to Abridged Pause Recordings). Although no music videos were produced for this release, the band and record label promoted the single “Thoughts As Naïvety”.
A follow-up to Abondance De Périls, entitled The Last Great Torch Song, was released on March 14, 2012, through Abridged Pause Recordings. Both extended plays’ cover art were based on an image by French photographer Marina Polak. The Last Great Torch Song also featured a series of guest musicians and collaborators including keyboardist Garry Brents (of Cara Neir, Parabstruse, Bunrage, and many others), vocalist Eiman Nejad (of Arcanum, Mutiny, Beneath The Dead Ring, Antiquity, Unblessed, Eliminator, Brainscan and Intifada SS), vocalist Howard Change (of Arcanum, Throne Of Mortality, Funeral Junkie, Black Albatross, Valleys Of The Living and Uma Orla) and guitarist Alexander Fawcett (of Karmyne, Oceanus, Arboretus, Esuna, Sleepless Dreams, Good Weather For An Airstrike and Hagakur).
Following The Last Great Torch Song, Vision Eternel was put on hold while Julien worked on other projects. In the summer of 2014, Vision Eternel was approached to compose the soundtrack to a short film. After composing and recording the soundtrack, it was discovered that the film’s writer-director-producer had absconded with the funds for the project. Instead of leaving the music unreleased, Julien re-conceptualized the soundtrack into Vision Eternel’s fifth extended play, Echoes From Forgotten Hearts. Partly re-recorded and fully-re-mixed, Echoes From Forgotten Hearts was released through Abridged Pause Recordings on February 14, 2015, and was promoted with the single “Pièce No. Sept”.
In celebration of Vision Eternel’s ten-year anniversary in 2017, the band released a a selection of t-shirts and stickers featuring Jeremy Roux’s classic 2008 band logo, and renown calligraphist Christophe Szpajdel’s new anniversary band logo. A music video for the single “Pièce No. Trois” (originally released on Echoes From Forgotten Hearts), co-directed by Julien and Roux and edited by Vasiliy Atutov, was released in August 2017. The band also compiled its long-anticipated boxed set, An Anthology Of Past Misfortunes, which regrouped all of Vision Eternel’s previously released and unreleased recorded material on compact discs and compact cassette. After numerous challenges, the boxed set was finally released on April 14, 2018, through Abridged Pause Recordings.
Vision Eternel presented its next installment of the greater story-line through the concept extended play For Farewell Of Nostalgia. Julien began composing and recording demos for the release in 2017; the release was then recorded over seven months from April to October of 2018. Unsatisfied with these original recordings, Julien put the release aside for a year, until he ultimately decided to re-record it, entirely from scratch, over the span of two months between October and November of 2019. The final version of For Farewell Of Nostalgia was mastered by Carl Saff at Saff Mastering and the cover artwork was illustrated by pulp artist Michael Koelsch at Koelsch Studios; the release features additional painting and photography by Rain Frances at Rain Frances Art. Julien also wrote a short story to accompany the release (in place of lyrics in the booklet), which recounts the heartbreaking events that influenced the release. For Farewell Of Nostalgia was released on September 14, 2020, on compact disc through Somewherecold Records, compact cassette through Geertruida, and digitally through Abridged Pause Recordings.
In February 14, 2024, Vision Eternel will release a deluxe edition of Echoes From Forgotten Hearts.
Founding band member Alexander Julien has also played in Les Rocker’s (1999), The Slopin Fairy 7 (2003-2004), The Tom & Alex Project (2003), Scapegoat (2004), Throne Of Mortality (2005-2007), Projection Mina (2006-2007), Soufferance (2006-2016), Vision Solitude (2006-2010), Vision Lunar (2006-2007, 2007-2009, 2015-Present), Gallia Fornax (2007), Human Infect (2007-2008), Green Territory (2007), Lanterns Awake (2010-2011), Éphémère (2010, 2013, 2015), Citadel Swamp (2010-2016) and Murder On Redpath (2010-2011).
