After some cryptic teasers, the Italian shoegaze/dream pop trio Be Forest has officially announced the release of ‘Knocturne’, their first new album since 2014’s ‘Earthbeat’, which will be coming out February 8th via the renowned Italian-American label collective We Were Never Being Boring (Bandcamp pre-order).
After teasing a smoke-shrouded video on social media which wound up being the album opener Atto I (YouTube), they’ve shared Knocturne’s first official single Bengala. Of the track, Be Forest describes it as “The spotlight that lights up the stage after the curtains open; a celestial body which at the moment of its impact allows us to glimpse our surroundings — it’s the brightest point, the north of the compass. This is, though, only one of the coordinates of Knocturne. Perhaps the most reassuring.” Take a listen to Bengala via YouTube below.
To help create the group’s most moody, beguiling and mesmerizing full-length to date, Be Forest enlisted Steve Scanu to assist with production and mixing duties and mastering came courtesy of Josh Bonati (Mac DeMarco, Zola Jesus, David Lynch). The songs navigate the cryptic courses between worlds like the airy and inverted Empty Space, or the cinematic duality of doppelgängers on Gemini, to film-style scores inspired by Kafka-esque stories as heard on K. Sinewy subterranean soundtracks for film thrillers not yet made can be heard on Sigfrido, which then returns the listening audience to the second and suspenseful movement of Atto II.
‘Knocturne’ is a song cycle that commiserates with our own collective international uncertainty and unease of these current times, bringing breaks in the luster of night—like the fractured Fragment—with the shining beacons of aural light at the end of the tunnel like the first official single Bengala, to the dream portrait closer You, Nothing. Be Forest is officially back with their most ambitious and atmospheric album yet… those seeking the tangible terrain and audio designed environments of their previous releases are in for a mind, spirit and emotional awakening.
