To add:

-Adieu Tristesse
Recorded: November 30th 2009 – November 14th 2010
First mixing: November 16th 2010 – November 21st 2010
Second Mixing: February 2nd 2011 – May 16th 2011
Third Mixing September 9th 2011 (Marc Hoyland)
Fourth Mixing (8th song) Summer 2012?
Samples Mixed: August 26th 2013
Produced: November 30th 2009 – August 26th 2013
Artwork: Niels Geybels August 2012 – October 2012
Layout: Alex Julien December 12th 2012 – November 11th 2013
Lyrics: October-December 2nd 2012

 

These piece were recorded but unused on the album:
2009-11-30 bass – industrial marching
2010-06-05 guitar – ebow4
2010-11-14 bass – new3

 

Last.fm Scrobbles 2009-2010

2009 November 30th
Soufferance, Vision — soufferance moving piece2
Soufferance, Vision — soufferance moving piece3
Soufferance, Vision — industrial marching bass
Soufferance, Vision — small flower part
Soufferance, Vision — some dark thing
Soufferance, Vision — soufferance 2 bass mountain
Soufferance, Vision — first song
Soufferance, Vision — 2

2009 December 9th
Soufferance, Vision — first song
Soufferance, Vision — small flower part
Soufferance, Vision — some dark thing
Soufferance, Vision — soufferance 2 bass mountain

2009 December 14th
Soufferance, Vision — some bass atmosphere
Soufferance, Vision — first song
Soufferance, Vision — small flower part
Soufferance, Vision — some dark thing
Soufferance, Vision — soufferance 2 bass mountain
Soufferance, Vision — soufferance moving piece3
Soufferance, Vision — 2

2009 December 26th
Soufferance, Vision — first song
Soufferance, Vision — small flower part
Soufferance, Vision — some dark thing
Soufferance, Vision — soufferance moving piece3

2010 January 12th
Soufferance, Vision — first song
Soufferance, Vision — industrial marching bass
Soufferance, Vision — small flower part
Soufferance, Vision — some bass atmosphere
Soufferance, Vision — some dark thing
Soufferance, Vision — soufferance 2 bass mountain
Soufferance, Vision — soufferance movine piece (demo)
Soufferance, Vision — soufferance moving piece 3
Soufferance, Vision — 2

2010 January 14th
Soufferance, Vision — Moving Piece (Demo)
Soufferance, Vision — bass – mountains
Soufferance, Vision — bass – some atmosphere
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – 22
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – 8 minute jam
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – elegant picking elevated to arabic aripagos
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – first song
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – jam 2
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – moving piece3
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – small flower part
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – some dark thing
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – some riff
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – sorta song

2010 January 15th
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – 22
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – 8 minute jam

2010 January 18th
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – elegant picking elevated to arabic aripagos
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – first song
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – jam 2
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – moving piece3
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – small flower part
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – some dark thing
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – some riff
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – sorta song

2010 February 8th
Soufferance, Vision — bass – some atmosphere
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – 22
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – 8 minute jam
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – elegant picking elevated to arabic aripagos
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – first song
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – jam 2
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – moving piece3
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – small flower part
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – some dark thing
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – some riff
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – sorta song

2010 March 30th
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – ebow1
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – ebow2
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – ebow3

2010 May 4th
Soufferance, Vision — bass – industrial marching
Soufferance, Vision — bass – mountains
Soufferance, Vision — bass – some atmosphere
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – 22
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – 8 minute jam
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – ebow1
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – ebow2
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – ebow3
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – elegant picking elevated to arabic aripagos
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – first song
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – jam 2
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – moving piece3
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – new riff
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – small flower part
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – some dark thing
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – some riff
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – sorta song

2010 May 22nd
Soufferance, Vision — bass – mountains
Soufferance, Vision — bass – some atmosphere
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – 22
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – 8 minute jam
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – ebow1
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – ebow2
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – ebow3
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – elegant picking elevated to arabic aripagos
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – first song
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – jam 2
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – moving piece3
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – new riff
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – small flower part
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – some dark thing
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – some riff
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – sorta song
Soufferance, Vision — Comme Un Sage (Demo)
Soufferance, Vision — Moving Piece (Demo)

2010 June 5th
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – ebow4
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – film noir idea1
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – Sweet Smell of Success
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – film noir idea2
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – film noir idea3
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – film noir idea4
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – first song
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – jam 2
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – moving piece3
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – new riff
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – small flower part
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – some dark thing
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – some riff
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – sorta song
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – chain gang
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – ebow1
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – ebow2
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – ebow3
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – ebow4
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – elegant picking elevated to arabic aripagos
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – film noir idea2
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – film noir idea3
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – film noir idea4
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – first song
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – chain gang
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – jam 2
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – moving piece3
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – new riff
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – small flower part
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – some dark thing
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – some riff
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – sorta song
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – Sweet Smell of Success
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – ebow1
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – ebow2
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – ebow3
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – ebow4
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – elegant picking elevated to arabic aripagos
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – film noir idea2
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – film noir idea3
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – film noir idea4
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – first song
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – jam 2
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – moving piece3
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – small flower part

2010 June 7th
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – chain gang
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – some dark thing
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – some riff
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – sorta song
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – Sweet Smell of Success
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – new riff

2010 June 8th
Soufferance, Vision — bass – industrial marching
Soufferance, Vision — bass – mountains
Soufferance, Vision — bass – some atmosphere
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – 22
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – chain gang
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – 8 minute jam

2010 June 11th
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – Sweet Smell of Success
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – film noir idea2

2010 June 18th
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – chain gang
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – 22

2010 August 12th
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – the lost weekend

2010 September 22nd
Soufferance, Vision — Soufferance Split Song

2010 October 1st
Soufferance, Vision — Dementia Praecox

2010 October 4th
Soufferance, Vision — Dementia Praecox

2010 October 5th
Soufferance, Vision — Dementia Praecox

2010 October 10th
Soufferance, Vision — Dementia Præcox

2010 October 21st
Soufferance, Vision — Dementia Præcox

2010 October 23rd
Soufferance, Vision — Dementia Præcox

2010 October 26th
Soufferance, Vision — Dementia Præcox

2010 November 1st
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – first song
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – elegant picking elevated to arabic aripagos

2010 November 8th/9th (night of)
Burzum — Hermoðr Á Helferð (11:32 pm to 12:02 am, and again 4:58 pm to 5:01 pm)

2010 November 11th
Soufferance, Vision — Hermoðr á Helferð
Soufferance, Vision — Dementia Præcox

2010 November 13th
Soufferance, Vision — Hermoðr á Helferð
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – the lost weekend
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – VE sound
Soufferance, Vision — bass – Ambient Pick
Soufferance, Vision — bass – backing good
Soufferance, Vision — bass – Faith No More Rock N Roll Pick
Soufferance, Vision — bass – Folk Like Fast Pick
Soufferance, Vision — bass – High Chords Pick
*includes Gallia Fornax recordings

2010 November 16th
Soufferance, Vision — bass – backing good
Soufferance, Vision — bass – mountains
Soufferance, Vision — bass – new2
Soufferance, Vision — bass – some atmosphere
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – 22
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – 8 minute jam
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – bc rich1
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – ebow2
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – film noir idea4
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – bc rich2
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – film noir idea2
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – more soufferance 01

2010 November 18th
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – film noir idea2
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – 8 minute jam
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – bc rich1
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – bc rich2
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – first song
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – jam 2
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – more soufferance 01
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – film noir idea4

2010 November 19th
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – 8 minute jam
Soufferance, Vision — bass – backing good
Soufferance, Vision — bass – mountains
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – 22
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – bc rich1
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – bc rich2
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – ebow1
Soufferance, Vision — New S,V = Part 1 (37m)

2010 November 20th
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – some riff
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – Sweet Smell of Success
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – bc rich1
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – VE sound
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – film noir idea3
Soufferance, Vision — guitar – 22

2010 November 25th to November 30th went to USA.

Continue for 2011:
https://www.last.fm/user/HDS7/library?from=2011-01-01&to=2011-01-31

 

 

 

Conversation started February 2, 2011
Alexandre Julien
2/2, 1:39pm
Alexandre Julien
Hello Miranda. I stumbled on your website, Ghost in the Woods today, and I really like you work. Your photography is really amazing, and i can only image how cool it would be to watch one of your films. A quick google search told me you were also musically involved with Korouva, which, from what i’ve heard, is very good!
I would like to know if you do artwork for anyone else? I would really love to have your “vision” on one of my upcoming album. I think your photography/artwork would fit it perfectly!
Let me know
Alex Julien
Miranda Lehman
2/2, 2:32pm
Miranda Lehman
Wow, incredible! A google search huh? Thank you!
As to your questions… of course I do artwork for other people!
If you’re still interested we can talk more about what you had in mind, and what kind of budget you have for the artwork. Either way, it’s been lovely to hear from you, a lovely way to start my day.
Miranda
Miranda Lehman
2/2, 2:35pm
Miranda Lehman
Oh, and cuz you mentioned it, here’s Close at Hand… just a little short film I made a year ago (and music by Korouva!)

ps. I’m not actually a part of Korouva, but I’ve got dear friends involved… so we help each other out when we feel like it.
Attachment Unavailable
This attachment may have been removed or the person who shared it may not have permission to share it with you.
Alexandre Julien
2/2, 2:36pm
Alexandre Julien
oh nice! i’ve added you so we can talk on fb chat!
February 15, 2011
Alexandre Julien
2/15, 7:48pm
Alexandre Julien
Do you happen to have any free time coming up so we could discuss my music ft. your artwork?
Miranda Lehman
2/15, 8:39pm
Miranda Lehman
Oh my – if it’s not too much bother it’s actually much, MUCH easier for me to talk through email right now because of my crazy work schedule… maybe after we talk some basics (like generally… what you have in mind for your album and what kind of budget you have) then we can arrange a time to talk in depth.
I’d really like to hear what kind of ideas you have I am just swamped with all sorts of other work right now. I want to be able to give you full attention if it’s possible… and right now, that can only happen through email…
So let me know the basics of what you are thinking and we can talk more if you’re still interested!
I hope to hear from you soon,
Miranda
February 16, 2011
Alexandre Julien
2/16, 12:57am
Alexandre Julien
i actually made a quick music video to preview the album im working on right now. Two of the songs are used in this video, but they are reduced to 2 minutes each from their original run time of nearly 10 minutes each. The album will be mostly in those veins. If you are familiar with Swans at all, I would say that the album will be similar to their late 90s sound (Soundtrack for the Blind for example).
Let me know what you think of this music. I wouldn’t want to force you to work with music you didnt feel.

Soufferance – Preview of the Second Full Length-Album
A short preview of the second full-length album by the Quebecois experimental dark ambient band Soufferance. Release date and record label undisclosed at the moment. For more info visit: http://www.facebook.com/soufferance. http://www.myspace.com/soufferance. http://soufferance.bandcamp.com/
gdata.youtube.com
Miranda Lehman
2/16, 1:40am
Miranda Lehman
That’s fantastic! Thanks for sending me the link, I really love your sounds!
So I guess my question is what, specifically, are you looking for from me? I direct stuff and I take photos and I am not totally sure what you want yet… OR the scope or budget of the project.
I really dig your sound a whole lot, but I’ve gotta know what you want me to do and what kind of budget you have for it!
Talk to you soon,
Miranda
Alexandre Julien
2/16, 1:51am
Alexandre Julien
alright well, to be honest, i think that most of teh artist i have worked with gave me really good deals. im used to not paying more than 100$ for my artwork for my albums, which from what ive heard is a good price.
What I’m working on is the second full length album of Soufferance. I’m actually re-producing the entire thing because I wasnt satisfied with the first version. The first version was a single song long that was 1h17mins. But i am redoing it into seven songs, which are all around 10 minutes in length.
i also had an original concept for the album but decided to scrap that as it wouldnt fit with the new idea. So pretty much what i have is an album split into 7 songs, with a concept that i have yet to come up with. If you like I can send you a few of the still unfinished songs, so you can have an idea of what the album will sound like.
What I need the most is artwork. I’m not sure if youve ever done artwork for a band before, if so id love to see it! What id like to do as well, if possible would be short music videos for each of the songs. They could be cut down to about 1 minute each, which i would let you chose which moments of each songs you feel can be chosen to represent well, and have like 7 short music videos to promote the album, and to maybe help come up with an idea of a concept, and fan interaction.
let me know what you think of these ideas, and what the price would be for artwork and for the music videos idea. Im a musician, so of course im poor haha, and im not looking for mtv quality material. this album is very emotional and its main purpose is to evoke emotions as i attempted to do with the short film i sent you.
alex
March 18, 2011
Alexandre Julien
3/18, 4:40pm
Alexandre Julien
Hey Miranda! Id like to ask you if youve had a chance to think about the ideas i sent you some time ago? Have you considered working together?

 

 

Following the “planned release date” of “Travels Into Several Remote Nations of the Mind” (July 2009), I spent the next three months doing promotion for the album. But when I saw that the label was delaying it indefinitely, I started thinking about the second full length album. I wanted to start recording bits and pieces here and there just like I had done for the first album. I was in no rush, as the first album was recorded over a two and half year period, and was eventually released after a year long delay. Thats a total of three and a half years for a single album. This one was in no way a hurry, but I was in a better composing mood in the beginning. On November 30th 2009 I started recording long pieces, that were highly influenced by Swans’ late career. Two songs from “Soundtracks for the Blind” were incredibly important to me during this time; “The Sound” and “Helpless Child”. I recorded a few “long instrumental passages” (as Michael Gira would describe), including “First Song”, “Moving Piece”, “8 Minute Jam”, “Jam 2” and “Elegant Picking Elevated to Arpeggios”. Later on I would also record “Chain Gang” and “The Lost Weekend”. Alone, those pieces would make up fifty-eight minutes of the album. Shorter bits were recorded as well randomly. The working title for the album at that time was “Problems of the Egotistical Mind” and would have had two songs; The first was going to be called “Bonjour Tristesse” and the second “Au Revoir Larmes de Lune”.

Also heavily influenced by Eleventh He Reaches London albums “Hollow Be My Name” and “The Good Fight For Harmony”.

June 5, 2010. Posted on FB: “thanks to another creative night, Soufferance now has an hour and fifteen minutes of material to work from on the second album… its a shame the first album has been delayed again and again and is still not out… problems of the egotistical mind.”

July 11, 2010. Posted on FB: just lost 600 gigs of ALL my files, music, films, my own music recordings, all my personal important files and papers…. single worst day of my life. worst than the breakup that caused me to write all the music in the first place…i had the entire 2nd Souferance full length written.. completely lost, and most were all jams.. an hour and a half of music completely forgotten. was formating my new laptop and i because on the windows partition manager it doesnt list the actual names of the disks, i erased my external hd instead of the system drive…

 

Download the demo of “Alternating Perfection”.

Nearly a year later, in October 2010, I took a short break to work on a new EP which I called “Bonjour Tristesse”. That EP was completed rather quickly in a few days, and on November 13th and 14th of 2010, I recorded the final pieces of the second full length album. I stopped there because I was about to go to New Jersey for Thanksgiving at the end of the month, and spent from November 16th to 21st doing post-production. I put together the entire album in the same manner as “Travels Into Several remote Nations of the Mind”, one long song. I wasn’t sure if I liked the album at all in the beginning, but it was still newly put together so I figured it would grow on me. I burnt a single copy of the album for Darklink (Phil Altobelli), putting the ugliest colors and drawings I could think of on it and brought it to him when Laura and I went down to Jersey. We were listening to it in the car driving around, and it was obvious that it needed to be mastered, or reworked, because a lot of the sounds were lost in the car stereo. I knew however that Soufferance needs to be listened to with headphones, so I didn’t make a big deal of it.

Download the first version of the album.

What I had originally conceived for the album concept was my dedication to films, the first part, to film noirs specifically. I wanted the album artwork to be in the style of a 1940’s film poster drawing, and the entire booklet to be made like lobby cards. I also wanted the entire album instrumental, because I was going to write a short hardboiled detective story that was going to be included in the booklets, and would be readable while you listened to the album. It would have been very similar to the first album. For this artwork I contacted Haate Kaate, this was to do the covers for both “Bonjour Tristesse” and this second album. Her price was more than I could afford, so we didn’t work together after all.

I started writing a short story but this is as far as I got:

It was cold and damp the night that she came to see me. Must of been past midnight when I got back to my crum hole of an office. I needed some coffee and food if I was to finish up the case on a cheating husband for some cheap dame. Business was bad and I’d take any job that came along. As I came up the stairs I could see the silhouette of someone waiting by my door. At first I thought it was that dame with the missing husband, but as I got closer I could make out a nice-figured doll.

Telling yourself that your own album needs to grow on you was obviously a mistake, and I was starting to feel it pretty bad. All throughout January, I was showing the album to a few people, and they all seemed to like it or be partial to it. It wasn’t good enough for me. First of all, I had intended the first fifteen minutes of the album to be hardly listenable. The entire “Chain Gang” part was meant to make people not want to hear the rest, only to be hit by “Moving Piece” around fifteen minutes and be blown away by emotions. What ended up happening was that people liked the first quarter of an hour a whole lot. But what really got to me was that it was too passive of an album. It was too much like the first album; it easily became a background music. I didn’t want that at all! What I wanted was that those long emotional pieces would really get to you. I wanted people to be able to say “This is the part I REALLY like!”. But having the album in one long piece like this was going to make it very difficult.

It took me a few weeks to convince myself that I had to restart all the post-production of this album. I talked to Marc Hoyland quite a bit during this time, and though he liked the album as is, he is the one that motivated me to try it again. I wouldn’t have been happy with this album coming out like this, even though a potential release date was far, far away. It was on February 2nd 2011 that I first restarted the production. I took the files from the finished album and cut them all back down, keeping most of the same effects, and stripped them down to the seven main parts and then all the extras. The seven main parts I mentioned earlier would now be the core for each of the seven songs on the album. And all the extras would be combined in with those seven songs, mainly at the end of each, but the album would still flow through. So it is easy to listen to as one, but each track would stand out on their own. I wanted to do this so that when on a CD for example, a listener can simply press next and it is the start of one of the important pieces. So each of the emotional pieces is the first part of each song. I felt that was the only way to really get people to notice and feel the emotions. Perhaps on the first listen they may get lost into the album as a whole, but upon a second listen, they can easily find the pieces they liked.

I sent Marc Hoyland the premixes for him to mix and master on February 7th 2011, even though I continued producing my own version up until May 16th 2011. During this time I also approached Frederic Arbour at Cyclic Law to mix and master the album but his fee was outrageous. The material I sent Marc included all the original pieces recorded, plus five more black metal pieces that I had recorded early that year in the hope of doing an EP after this, that was planned to go back to the roots of the demo, a more black metal oriented album, but those songs were complete crap so they were never used. I also sent him printscreens of how I had the first version produced. It took him until September to start working on it, and he only got to do two versions of the first song before his computer crashed and couldn’t finish the job. The two versions of the first song were sent to me on September 22nd.

Download the two Marc Hoyland mixes

The general concept of the album had to be changed as well. Film noir didn’t really fit as well as I had hoped, and I felt that the pieces were too emotional to fit with the hard boiled story, even though some of the songs were recorded immediately after watching certain film noirs; “Chain Gang” (I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang), “The Lost Weekend”, “Sweet Smell of Success”, and countless “Film Noir Ideas”. The new concept was going to be connected to “Bonjour Tristesse”. The initial idea was to have another EP, after the release of this full-length album, to be titled “Adieu Tristesse”. But I decided to keep going in the direct of “EP/LP” “together concept”, and name this album “Adieu Tristesse”. It would follow the story of the first EP. “Bonjour Tristesse was based on my teenage depression days and the hospitalizations, and my personal struggle against depression for as long as I can remember. However, when Laura came along, it was relieve from my depression. And our relationship was still going strong when I was putting together this album. So I wanted to dedicate it completely to her, and conceptualize on the fact of “when you’re in love, death never existed”. The entire summer of 2011 was a huge struggle for me while she was gone, and I only continued working on the concept when she was almost back. By the end of September, all the song titles had been chosen, however as she had left me on August 17th, the final song was retitled from “As Eternity Continues”. The fact that all names started with the letter “A” was not intentional, it just came easier that way. The only thing that I had in mind was that they were all completely original titles, and when you searched for that exact term online, you would only get the Soufferance songs. One title was was not used was “As Autumn Brightens”. Laura would also be the subject and dedication to countless other albums, including the Vision Éternel EP “The Last Great Torch Song”.

On September 26th 2011, I started advertising the upcoming album with the only real demo version that I had, which was for “Alternating Perfection”. I uploaded it on Bandcamp privately and sent an individual promo download code to every person who was a fan of the Soufferance page on Facebook. I created a quick artwork for it, based on a photoshoot that Jeremy and I did on January 3rd 2011 at L’ile-de-la-Visitation in Sault-Au-Recollet. That photoshoot was supposed to have pictures for an album artwork, but Jeremy thought that they all came out too grainy.

By early December I had to figure out what was going to happen with this project. Marc couldn’t finish any mixing, and I also had to decide which record label would release it. Out of the 75 labels I emailed, I had offers from Le Crepuscule Du Soir Productions, Singularity Publishings, Abandonment Records, Black Drone Records, Fusty Cunt Records, Pale Noir Records, Ambient Records, Trazeroeuno Records and Kalpamantra Records. Ambient Records had offered to release Adieu Tristesse in a limited edition of 150 copies, with 50 coming straight to me.

I decided to go with Le Crepuscule Du Soir because the owner Djo was interesting to talk to and he had a real passion for the music I was making (he had originally asked to buy four copies of Travels Into Several Remote Nations Of The Mind when it came out). He was also planning to come to Montreal in April 2012, so we talked of hanging out. The only problem with him was that he took forever to answer emails. He wanted the album to be released in the spring of 2012, so that it would be ready when he came, and had offered me a similar deal to the Valse Sinistre Productions’ one. But he disappeared and stopped responding to my emails. Only after he came to Montreal did he get back to me, in July 2012, wanting to release the album. I had a few extra b-sides for this album that I hadn’t used but I actually compiled into an eighth song, which clocked in over twenty minutes. But that pushed the album over CD time limit and I never knew if it would be included or not.

But by then I had already been talking with another label to release Soufferance material. It’s always a rule for me to go back to the same labels when I have a new album ready. I like to stay in the same circle of people I know. I came back in touch with Andrew Fritts who used to operate Dungeons Deep Records. The label had been inactive for a few years now, but after hearing “The Asphalt Jungle” from the next album, “Memories of a City”, he wanted to bring the label back and release that album! I was even more happy when, after hearing “Adieu Tristesse” in its entirety, he wanted to release that one even more! We started working out ideas for the packaging, but everything came to a half in mid-summer when I moved, and immediately after my grandmother passed away. By early August the format was set; two DVD sized transparent slimcases, wrapped together with a silkscreened cloth. It was Andrew’s own suggestion to extend the album to two CDs in order to fit the final song that was compiled. I contact Niels Geybels at Depraved Designs for our fifth collaboration, and he started working on the artwork.

Niels sent me the final artwork October 17th 2012 and of course there were issues with it. The DPI was only at 150 and there was a lack of continuity between the two artwork. Not only that, he sent me the photoshop files flattened, so I wasn’t able to fix anything. I still had to write all the short stories for the booklet, I really had no idea where to start, but I knew what I wanted. I wanted a short story for each song. It took me until December 2nd 2012 to finish the stories and finally send the full album to Andrew Fritts at Dungeons Deep. He completely ignored my messages for a whole week before finally responding to me that he was not bringing back the label after all due to financial difficulties.

That night I emailed fifteen new labels in hope of getting this album released (at this time making a total of three years and two months since starting this album, the music was starting to feel old). The only label to get back to me with an offer was Essentia Mundi but they wanted to do it on pro-pressed cassette tapes and only a few months into 2013. I was starting to face the fact that perhaps this album would never get a physical release so on December 12th 2012 I started working on a digital booklet with the iTunes specifications, just in case. I ended up realizing that it was pointless for Soufferance to ever rely on outside record labels to help me release my work, so I simply put it up on the Soufferance Bandcamp page for purchase download and figured that would be the end of it.

Through out the first part of 2013, I had different ideas about releasing Adieu Tristesse on two CDs, with almost the same layout that was created for Depraved Designs, but through Mortified Studios. All I needed was about 100$ to make 20 copies happen, but it stalled and I didn’t have time nor money. Finally in the summer, I quit my job at Bell and was actually financially comfortable, and decided I would do the Travels boxset to help finance this double CD. After putting together the boxset, I decided I would eventually do a “Tristesse” boxset as well, where I would actually release this double CD. But Travels really didn’t sell so things stalled again.

On November 10th 2013, I was struck with my yearly desire to release more music, and as usual, I had little new material but plenty old stuff that wasn’t properly released. I decided it was time that Adieu Tristesse get a proper digital release through Abridged Pause Recordings. The idea quickly grew to re-issue an official digital version of “Bonjour Tristesse” at the same time, and I was actually considering adding a bunch of unreleased songs to the EP. I even had an idea to release “Tristesse” as a digital compilation, which would of had all the songs from the phase, between 15 to 20 songs total.

The most important change during this period was that I was willing to go back to the recordings and change two things that had always bothered me. The first was a lead guitar part on “Alternating Perfection” that I wanted to record on an eBow. I had the idea perfect in my head since the song was first recorded but I never was able to get it right on recording, due to my huge lack of recording technology. I figured out exactly which notes it would be and demoed it on my phone but never got around to actually recording the final version.

The second change was for the last song, “As Hope’s Last Breath Faded”. Rain and I were watching Marx Brothers movies and during Room Service, they do a musical number of “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot”. It reminded me on the Swans song “Blood Promise” from their live album “Swans are Dead”. I decided to cut a loop of the gospel song and edit it into the beginning of the track. I released both “Adieu Tristesse” and “Bonjour Tristesse” on November 14th 2013 through my label Abridged Pause Recordings.

 

On January 16th 2018, while documenting Soufferance on MusicBrainz, it required that I do some research on the recording and mixing dates of this release. All of this got me nostalgic and I remembered that Essentia Mundi had offered to release it. So I emailed them again to know if they still would like to do it.
Then I later got more ideas on how I could redo this release in a new way, if they would be interested in it. I would go back to the original recording pieces and only select the best material, as opposed to trying to use “all” the material in the previous version. I would then re-mix the songs in a new order that made more sense to me and possibly record new leads and overdubs, such as the much desired lead on Alternating Perfection. It would give the release a fresh sound and would somewhat be something completely new. The artwork could be completely redesigned again, and I could re-edit the music video using high a resolution version of David and Lisa, add it on Soufferance’s new YouTube channel and spend a few months promoting that release. But this conflicted with my desire to focus strictly on Vision Éternel, and again I would need label backing to make it happen because I am good at documenting but poor at promoting.

 

1. Fragment 1: An Unlikely Meeting
2. Fragment 2: Alternating Perfection
3. Fragment 3: Almost Was Never An Option
4. Fragment 4: Absence as Fonder Hearts
5. Fragment 5: A Brief Comfort in Togetherness
6. Fragment 6: August Brought Agony
7. Fragment 7: And Eternity Lingered On
8. Fragment 8: As Hope’s Last Breath Faded