Spotlight: Ciel 'Movement'
☆ By HENRY AGER ☆
DELICATE, UNIQUE VOCALS AND TEXTURED INSTRUMENTATION - these are key elements that is the foundation of Brighton-based CIEL’s music, giving their chilled-out songs such an appeal.
At the time of our interview the group consisted of Michelle Hindriks (vocals), Jorge Bela (guitar), Tim Spencer (drums) and Kieran Mansfield (bass), thought Mansfield has since left the band. Hindriks came over from The Netherlands to the UK, bringing some songs she had written, with hopes to find some Brighton talent and to spread new roots. When Bela heard her demos, he knew instantly that he wanted to be part of the project. “we had a connection straight away” Hindriks shares, “one of the most important things is we have a shared passion for similar music”. Mansfield also fell in love with the demos and soon they began developing into what would be their first EP together, Movement.
The demos that became Movement were written over a long period of time while Hindriks was living in The Netherlands and going through periods of transition, including her move to Brighton. As if the EP works as a journal, Movement offers insight into Hindriks’ thoughts during these times, following her through the highs and lows of these transitions. “The Shore” opens the EP, and is written about being stuck and waiting for your life to start. In “The Shore” the band showcase their extreme talent in conveying emotions and story through their music. The melancholy instruments combined with the daydreamy vocals conjure up images of a young creative who hasn’t had the chance to show their potential yet. CIEL’s ability to perfectly match emotions with their themes is a reoccurring strong point of their EP Movements.
“Days” is another example of where the band has captured an emotion perfectly through their instruments. In the breakdown after the second chorus, there is a sudden mood change from the initial positive direction of the song. This dark mood change represents the reflecting back on parts of life that didn’t go so well, to demonstrate this, Bela wanted to get “the loudest, most monstrous, huge sound” out of his guitar by creating a chain of pedals during recording. This focus on the emotions gives CIEL their edge and makes their music relatable.
The writing and recording process for Movement was very different to how they are currently creating music. With their original process, the foundations of the songs had already been created and it was up to the band to experiment together and find their balance. Every instrument had a spotlight, particularly in “Same Old Times With U”, allowing each musician to bring something new to the demos. The writing process also generally occurred live during rehearsals, with even more development happening during their gigs. However, this never gave them the chance to sit down and build on parts. As a result, this gives the EP a very experimental feel, adding character and showing promise for future releases.
Lockdown has presented a unique opportunity where there are no gigs, giving the band opportunity to start writing new music. Due to this, they have had the time to dissect each part of the song and develop it to exactly what it needs to be. Mansfield explains, “It’s an opportunity to really critically listen whilst not playing an instrument or being distracted by the process, you’re thinking ‘what does this need to be?”. This is going to give the songs a very thorough and thought out sound which will be a leap from the experimentation of Movement.
This unique circumstance has also allowed them to focus on building and boosting Hindriks’ melodies as they believe it is their strength. Another aspect of the new singles that will be different from Movement is that all four members of CIEL have written and contributed towards it. Each member is encouraged to express their creativity, “we leave a lot of space for each other” shares Hindriks. The band are also comfortable with listening critically to each other’s parts and giving feedback. With all four members of CIEL working on their new music it is sure to be a fresh and developed take on their previous sound.
The first taste of their lockdown writing is their latest single “All My Life”, a track touching on being an introvert and making your way through life. Although the song has the characteristics of the CIEL sound, it has a very different feel to the songs in Movement. This single has a more restrained and perfected sound, the result of the focused writing, compared to the ‘everything in’ sounds in Movement. ""All My Life” makes you rewind the song and listen more intently to delve another layer deeper. It is a massive step in the right direction from the already good Movement EP and with more singles to be released early next year we should all be excited to see what more CIEL have to offer.
During lockdown the band has also been able to work on a deluxe version of Movement which includes an extra song and a soundscape. The song is an interpretation of “Same Old Times With U”, they have taken the stems of the song and rearranged them with some different mixing and instrumentation, essentially remixing their own song. The deluxe EP has been released on 7” Vinyl with special editions of the artwork created from drawings by Hindriks and Bela.
After the success of Movement, CIEL are keen to release their new songs towards the end of this year. The new music will build on all the wonderful aspects of Movement and showcase a new direction of their sound as well. CIEL also has shows booked for next year, with a tour in Spain and festivals in The Netherlands. Give Movement a listen, keep an eye out for their releases and grab tickets if you can, you definitely won’t regret it.
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