Now this album for me was a huge masterpiece. It was a huge load of work and took two and a half years to complete, plus a whole years delay for it to come out. So a grand total of three and a half years struggle and frustration for this one album. But it is a mastodon of an album. One song, an hour and five minutes long. And that’s the album cut. If I had decided to use all the pieces it would have been an extra five to ten minutes. There were plans for different cuts of the album, one for CD, another for vinyl and tape, another for digital.

This material started being recorded in January of 2007. The day I came up with the album name was on February 27th 2007, I saved it in the Vision Solitude folder. I had intended on using it for a Vision Solitude album that never went further than coming up with a name. I recorded around a forty minutes worth of work between then and November 2007, at which point I compiled a seventeen minutes EP entitled “Forthcoming Travels”. That EP was not representative of what I wanted the album to sound like, but I really wanted to show a few people what was going on.

Recording dates and varying song names:

January-February 2007
Outro Reverb Song * not used on EP nor LP
Alien Reverb Song/Suicide By Venus/The Magician/Ombra Mai/Ombra Mei
TRT-9:17

May-July 2007
2007-05 Bass Song/Rouge Gorge Bass Song/Le Rouge Gorge En Sommeil/Rouge Gorge/Give Us The World/A Narrative Of The South Seas
2007-05 Solo Like Part/Solo Like Part (Original Mix)/The Sound Of Winter
2007-05 Sounds Of Whales/Le Surnom D’une Tristesse/On The Night Of The Fire/Souvenirs From The Pond Of The Bellevue Forest/.
2007-05 Chants De Moines/Monastère D’un Moine Perdu/Clouds In The Wind/Moby Dick
2007-05 Metal Pin Song/Ascent Of Mount White
2007-06-26 Comme Un Sage (Demo) * not used on EP nor LP
2007-06-26 Odd Man Out Speech/Theory Of An Odd Man/Theory Of An Odd Man Out
2007-07-02 Camel Song (Demo)/Song Of The Camel (Demo)/Song Of Sand (Demo)/A Flask For The Journey
2007-07-02 Standard (Demo)/The End Of Something
2007-07-02 A Memory Of Past Emotions/A Song For The Angels/Elegy To The Memory Of An Unfortunate Lady
2007-07-03 Camel Song/Song Of The Camel/Song Of Sand/Death In The Clouds
TRT-28:32

October-November 2007
2007-10-05 Acoustic Song 1/His Masquerade
2007-10-05 Acoustic Song 2/Mist Of The Waters
2007-10-05 Dark Jam/The Floating City/The Sun Also Rises/The Light Of The World
TRT-36:05

December 2008
2008-12-9 Intro Song/A Fragment Of Glass
2008-12-9 Interlude Song 2/Ambush For The Hunter/The Hunchback
2008-12-9 Interlude Song 3/On The Edge Of The Sea

May-June 2009
A Description Of The Morning
Hills Like White Elephants

Unknown (lost originals due to HD crash in Autumn 2009):
Could have been recorded anytime between November 2007 to June 2009:

New Bass Song (scrobbled 7 Feb or Feb  9 2009)
Epiphany (Demo) (scrobbled 25 Jan 2009 and 9 April 2009)
Winter 1958 (Demo) (scrobbled 18 Apr 2009)
Melancholia (Rough Demo) (scrobbled 25 Jan 2009 and 11 Jun 2009)

Death And Daphne (12:34) guitar
. (14:18) vocals
A Winter Amid The Ice (16:34) guitar
Now I Lay Me (17:25) guitar harmonic
A Drama In The Air (17:31) bass
After The Storm (24:14) guitar
. (29:39) vocals
An Antarctic Mystery (30:41) bass
The Progress Of Beauty (36:28) guitar (possibly Epiphany? It was one of my favourite songs)
Invasion Of The Sea (37:41) bass
Beyond The Wall Of Sleep (54:32) bass
. (1:02:22) vocals

started mixing mid-June. Bellow are Last.fm scrobbles.
Though this is not 100%, it’s assumed that the mixing took place from June 13th to 18th 2009.

2009 June 17th post on Twitter “in the post-production phase of Soufferance, Vision’s full length. should be completed before the end of the month, likely.”

2009 June 14th
Soufferance, Vision — Travels Pt. 1

2009 June 16th
Soufferance, Vision — Travels Pt. 1

2009 June 18th
Soufferance, Vision — Travels Pt. 1
Soufferance, Vision — Travels Pt. 2

2009 June 18th
Soufferance, Vision — Travels Into Several Remote Nations of the Mind
*safe to assume that I finished editing and mixing the album on June 18th 2009. It was in 3 parts.

2009 June 19th
Soufferance, Vision – The Thoughts and Memoirs of Mike Lachaire, First A Strange Individual, And Then A Philosopher

2009 June 22nd
Soufferance, Vision – The Thoughts and Memoirs of Mike Lachaire, First A Strange Individual, And Then A Philosopher

2009 June 23rd
Soufferance, Vision – The Thoughts and Memoirs of Mike Lachaire, First A Strange Individual, And Then A Philosopher

2009 June 26th
Soufferance, Vision – The Thoughts and Memoirs of Mike Lachaire, First A Strange Individual, And Then A Philosopher

2009 June 27th
Soufferance, Vision – The Thoughts and Memoirs of Mike Lachaire, First A Strange Individual, And Then A Philosopher

2009 June 29th
Soufferance, Vision – The Thoughts and Memoirs of Mike Lachaire, First A Strange Individual, And Then A Philosopher

2009 June 30th
Soufferance, Vision – The Thoughts and Memoirs of Mike Lachaire, First A Strange Individual, And Then A Philosopher

2009 July 12th
Soufferance, Vision – The Thoughts and Memoirs of Mike Lachaire, First A Strange Individual, And Then A Philosopher

2009 July 27th
Soufferance, Vision – The Thoughts and Memoirs of Mike Lachaire, First A Strange Individual, And Then A Philosopher

But from very early on (around May 2007) I knew I wanted this to be a book dedication. I wanted something to be exactly like a book. When I was a child I was fascinated by Gulliver’s Travels so i decided to take the name directly from there. Travels Into Several Remote Nations of the World, in Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships. A great deal of books, stories, poems and pamphlets by authors such as Charles Baudelaire, Miguel de Cervantes, Daniel Defoe, Alexandre Dumas, frederick Lawrence Green, Ernest Hemingway, Victor Hugo, H.P. Lovecraft, Herman Melville, Molière, Émile Nelligan, Alexander Pope, John Steinbeck, Jules Verne and T.H. White were also used for the chapters. The chapters are like in books. Alone they are meaningless, therefore you have to read the entire book. This is not a short story. This is a full book.

As early as the fall of 2008, Dungeons Deep Records had offered to release it on vinyl, before it was even finished. But it ended up being so hard to get this thing released. I emailed twenty to thirty record labels. The fact is, no one wanted to release a single, one-hour-song album, because whether you call it a single or not, there is only a single song to promote. Its just one thing and its hard to get people’s attention with that. Unless they are looking for this! And that’s why I was lucky get a positive response from Robert Forgacs, the owner of Valse Sinistre Productions.

Found this message from Rob on Last.fm, dated June 19th 2009. don’t have what message I sent him:

hello
thanks for friend request
i already saw your website/label earlier
will you release those thing?
i will be interested to make distribution for them
through a trade
i am running Sun & Moon Records
and Valse Sinistre Productions
dealing with experimental, industrial, black metal, ambient, tec
www.sunandmoonrecords.com
www.valsesinistre.com
kind regards
rob

The label had worked with bands that have done concepts similar to this before, and they had worked a lot with Deep-pression, which, as much as I hate them, could be close to what I’m doing. A year earlier, Rob wanted to reissue the two first Vision Eternel EP’s on CD but as they had just been reissued by Frozen Veins Records, I told him it wasn’t a priority. When we first started talking about putting this out, I told him right away, I would like the label to pay for the artwork expenses in exchange for less copies of the album. That was fine with Rob, which was awesome. I contacted Costin Chioreanu, who also lived in Romania, and he created some mind blowing artwork. He got the exact emotions desired from the album and did what I think is the best job anyone could have possibly done! The only thing that I regret is leaving the chapter names in the back cover. It makes some confusion with people that those are the track titles. It should have been only in the booklet, and listed as “chapters”. There was also another mistake in the booklet, which mentions that the album was pressed in 1000 quantities. That was the initial plan, but the label changed it to 500 at the last minute to be able to afford it, considering its an expensive digipak album. I guess if it ever gets repressed, it should only be another run of 500, so that the booklet will be accurate. I don’t think that any more copies than that would ever be necessary.

On July 2nd, 2009, Costin sent me these preview files:

Valse Sinistre Productions originally set the release date for August 2009. Two months was okay by me. That was delayed and pushed back to October, which was pushed back itself to April 2010. But the label kept me in confidence that he really would release it soon. Finally, in June 2010 the album was pressed! I cannot expressed the amount of excitement the day I went to get the box of my copies at the post office! The label had sent me fifty copies anyway, even if they paid the artwork, so Rob was super cool about it. I think he felt bad about the year long delay.

June 14, 2010, 8:48 PM. Posted on FB “i pretty much give up hope of the Soufferance album ever coming out…”

Rob stalled and gave excuses as to why he hadn’t sent the albums yet. It was always an excuse and stalling. but in the end he made it right by  sending me more band copies than originally agreed upon.

July 11, 2010. sent fake email from Lanterns Awake email. Rob finally says he will send the copies.

July 13, 2010 11:05 AM. Posted on FB: “my new album is on its way! expect some serious promotion very soon!”

July 15, 2010. Posted several things on FB.
2:45 AM: “to all you late night rats: just posted a new blog announcing my brand new album release. more info to come soon.
BLOGS.MYSPACE.COM
http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAll&bID=537128118”
2:11 PM: “Please “like” or “become a fan” of my band, which just released its debut album “Travels Into Several Remote Nations of the Mind. I will be sending you an invitation soon. If you want the album, its a limited digipak, please get in touch with me!
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Soufferance-Vision/334391545346?v=info&ref=ts”
4:10 PM: “Check out my band on facebook!”
6:24 PM: “If youre on my freinds, then you should be nice enough to become a fan of my band. The first full length album just came out, and if you order a copy from me, it will be signed and ill include some bonus material of unreleased material and demos.
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?src=fftb#!/pages/Soufferance-Vision/334391545346?ref=ts”

July 16, 2010, 12:14 AM. Posted on FB: working on some DIY handmade artwork for the bonus material that comes with the 50 signed copies of the new Soufferance album. youll just have to order yourself a copy to find out what it is

got my package with the CDs on the night of July 21st 2010. Went to pickup the box at the post office near my apartment with Laura then went to get Chinese food for dinner and are while making the packages. Spent that night making bonus stuff with Laura and next afternoon took pictures of the album to sell online. I was REALLY excited and proud of this release when it came out.

That night, Laura and I created bonus packaging for all the copies that would be bought from the band. We painted strips of paper in burgundy color so they could be signed, and I made CDs with the same paint covers. The first batch of CDs (about a dozen were made) contained eleven songs. The second batch of CDs contained twelve. That’s because I later found an old demo that wasn’t used and had forgotten about, and added it to the new batch of CDs to make it a full CD of all the songs recorded during “Vision Sufferance”. The second batch is more pink than the first. “Moving Piece (Demo)” is actually a demo of a piece that will be on the second full length album. I think I regret having that on there too, because without that, it would have been strictly Vision Sufferance material. And that should have been for the second album.

Bellow is the original Myspace blog post announcing the release:

News come very seldom with this band, but it isn’t because nothing is happening. If only you knew all that was getting ready behind the curtain. But let us start from the beginning of the already introduced journey.

A year ago I completed my audio book “Travels Into Several Remote Nations of the Mind”. To attempt to explain this expedition without you (the reader) currently listening to it will be difficult, so I suggest you hurry and get yourself a copy. However for the sake of convincing you it is a superb concept, I will do my best.

This concept album is first and foremost my dedication to a great deal of authors that have worked my mind over the course of my life. Therefore this should be considered a musical audio book. This adventure will take you through many different parts of your brain, and experiment with your emotions. It is a single song “The Thoughts and Memoirs of Mike Lachaire, First a Strange Individual and then a Philosopher”. This single song is 65 minutes in length, but contains 29 chapters. Like a novel, it is not meant to be depicted to certain parts, but rather to be enjoyed as a whole.

This masterpiece just got released on the amazing Romanian label Valse Sinistre Production, in a gorgeous DVD sized digipak, and it really does look like a book. The artwork was created by Costin Chioreanu, who did a great job at getting the feeling of an actual old school Jules Verne or John Swift leather bound first edition. This album is strictly limited to 500 copies.

The companion to the full length came out a year ago as “Forthcoming Travels”. This EP was released on Svartgalgh Records in the Netherlands, and features all the demos and unused b-sides from the full-length to complete the entire Mortified Studios session recordings. The artwork was also created by Costin, but this EP is extremely limited to 50 copies and most are already gone. The label still has a few copies left.

From the beginning I wanted each release to be issued in various formats. I am now in discussion with a label to release the full length in cassette tape format, with alternate artwork and possibly an alternate edit of the album which will feature different material. Labels interested in other formats or other releases, please get in touch.

For each of the albums that will be bought from me, you will receive a bonus, exclusive handmade card and cd featuring bonus material. The works will be signed and numbered (out of 50). This will only ever be available with the purchase of this album and will never be remade.

To obtain a signed copy of the album directly from me, please send me a message on here, or to the band email: soufferance@gmail.com.

Please include your country in the email so I can let you know the exact shipping price.

Price is 10$/10€ plus shipping (2$ Canada, 3$ USA, 5€ Europe)

All copies ordered from me WILL be signed and contain bonus material.

You can also get the full length directly from Valse Sinistre Production.

And get the EP from Svartgalgh Records.

Download Link

1. The Thoughts and Memoirs of Mike Lachaire, First a Strange Individual, and then a Philosopher
   1. A Description of the Morning (0:00)
   2. Hills Like White Elephants (4:26)
   3. A Narrative of the South Seas (7:51)
   4. Moby Dick (9:03)
   5. Death and Daphne (12:34)
   6. . (14:18)
   7. His Masquerade (16:01)
   8. A Winter Amid the Ice (16:34)
   9. Now I Lay Me (17:25)
   10. A Drama in the Air (17:31)
   11. After the Storm (24:14)
   12. Ascent of Mount White (28:50)
   13. . (29:39)
   14. An Antarctic Mystery (30:41)
   15. The End of Something (35:38)
   16. The Progress of Beauty (36:28)
   17. Invasion of the Sea (37:41)
   18. The Floating City (38:39)
   19. The Sun Also Rises (40:17)
   20. The Hunchback (42:29)
   21. Ombra Mai (43:45)
   22. Ombra Mei (46:36)
   23. The Light of the World (49:30)
   24. Souvenirs from the Pond of the Bellevue Forest (51:04)
   25. . (51:58)
   26. Death in the Clouds (52:56)
   27. Beyond the Wall of Sleep (54:32)
   28. . (1:02:22)
   29. Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady (1:03:50)
2. Bonus Disc
   1. Long Corridor to Satan’s Valley
   2. Rains of Pain
   3. Theory of an Odd Man
   4. Rouge gorge
   5. Le surnom d’une tristesse
   6. Song of Sand
   7. Monastère d’un moine perdu
   8. Suicide by Venus
   9. A Memory of Past Emotions
   10. Outro Reverb Song *
   11. Comme un sage (Demo)
   12. Moving Piece (Demo)

artwork and layout by Costin Chioreanu
recorded January 2007 to June 2009 at Mortified Studios (NJ, MTL1, MTL2)
released by Valse Sinistre Productions (valse020)
released on June 18th 2010