Les Voyages De L'âme is the perfect example of timing and context playing a significant role in one's enjoyment of an album. Several positive factors are in place here as they are in previous Alcest albums; the guitar tone is surreal at times, and some of the melodies are relatively infectious as well. The key issue with this album is that Alcest, who previously have developed entirely new aesthetics for each of their previous albums, really do nothing new on this record. The clean guitar tone is slightly modified, being a sort of middle-ground between the tones on
Souvenirs D'un Autre Monde (speaking in vague terms,
Souvenirs had a "spring-time" aesthetic) and the more celestial sound on
Ecailles De Lune. Likewise, as far as melodies and other musical elements are concerned, there's nothing new to be seen on this album; again, Niege merely haphazardly combines elements from his previous works.
All of this is not meant to imply that an artist cannot maintain the same general sound and still release quality material, but the other important issue with
Les Voyages De L'âme is simply that most of the material is not as memorable as other well-loved Alcest tracks.
Voyages is the only Alcest record that I can't vividly remember after listening. However, while not as powerful and inspired as Niege's other records,
Voyages can still be an enjoyable listen, whether ultimately memorable or not; "Autre Temps" and "Beings Of Light" specifically are up to scratch.
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