The perfect introduction to Gregory Hoepffner’s debut album as KABBEL may be the label it’s being released through: Music of the Void, operated by fellow French darksynth project Perturbator. The songs on When the War Is Over suggest a guaranteed spot on the next collection of HEALTH collaborative singles: pulsing electronic music that feels split between something much heavier and much more pop-oriented. It’s also telling to note that the record was mixed by Lars Stalfors, who previously worked with The Dare, while the slew of acts KABBEL has already shared the stage with includes blackgaze stage-setters Alcest.
Hoepffner returns today with another single ahead of his album’s October 30 release, with “Fiction Clouds” repurposing the throbbing energy previously heard on his Perturbator collab “Reward” for an honest look at the “minority stress” that comes with being a member of the LGBTQ+ community. “It’s about the anxiety felt around potential or lived discrimination, rejection, or bullying,” he explains. “The stress becomes so internalized that it turns into constant paranoia. Sonically, the song lets this tension drive until the end, with a nocturnal ’80s synth pop production on steroids. I wanted it to feel like a dangerous dance.”
Leaning into these themes, the track’s video depicts Hoepffner’s confrontation with a younger version of himself in what looks like a psych ward. “A younger KABBEL-doppelganger is caught in a liminal loop prison, exchanging his life with his older-self, while his own band members seem to hold him hostage of the situation,” the artist explains of the scenario. “Directed by cinematographer Corentin Schieb, this mental purgatory dives into the liminal blue aesthetic, where dream and reality seamlessly blend like a David Lynch fever dream.”
Check out the video—which perhaps skews a bit more In the Mouth of Madness, in part due to said blue lighting—below, and pre-order When the War Is Over here.
