RAOUL VIGNAL

RAOUL VIGNAL

In the spring of 2021, Raoul Vignal unveiled Years in Marble, his third album—once again under Talitres—and wove a weightless universe of infinite delicacy. More hypnotic than ever, the melodies of the Lyon-based musician were both timeless and deeply contemporary.

Raoul Vignal is often identified by his guitar playing (subtle arpeggios and finger-picking) and his voice, imbued with luminous melancholy. However, his songwriting talents are sometimes overlooked. Like an impressionist painter, he captures and draws inspiration from the atmosphere of his daily life. His compositions are nomadic, each one a story, a postcard.

The creation of his new album, Shadow Bands, is set against the backdrop of his return to Lyon, his hometown, ten years after leaving it. Raoul Vignal walks through and rediscovers the streets of his childhood—the Vogue des Marrons fair on the Croix Rousse plateau (“A Horse Named Fortune”)—reminiscing about his early years and reflecting on the relentless passage of time (“Pathway”). He draws inspiration from his short stays here and there: Berlin and a somber morning when the news of a war breaking out 1,000 km away reaches him (“Canon Song”), Spain and a reunion with his brother (“South, Brother”), Sète and a conversation with a friend facing deafness, describing to him the distant roar of a stag heard the previous week (“Deer Song”). Lyon remains his anchor, yet the longing for elsewhere is ever-present.

A new journey through time (subtly accompanied on drums by Lucien Chatin’s rhythms), Shadow Bands once again delivers that stripped-down essence and crystalline poetry that gently embeds itself within us.