KRAAK FEST 2023 HIGHLIGHTS: Nuit Noire
Some 25 years ago, after a night walk through the French woods, Tenebras set out to create through Nuit Noire a unique blend of black metal, lo-fi and indie rock tropes which would eventually become known as “Faerie Punk”, a musical language associated with destruction and depression which is repurposed for hope and acceptance. Behold, the origin story and Faerie musings by the sword-wielding man of the night!
What are the origins of Nuit Noire?
Before Nuit Noire I had a black metal band called Grimoria. One day I walked in the woods with friends at night and a sword in my hand, and this moment came, under the full moon, where I wanted to put this into music. I was very into raw black metal at this time, and I also liked old school punk and goth rock. All this engendered my then new band Nuit Noire.
In some songs you speak about what sounds like a world that exists parallel to common perception. Can you tell us more about it, how you relate to it?
When I was a child I was often told by family and parents friends that I was coming from "another planet" ahah, well for sure I liked to create my own universe and I still do. This human world is not that bad, but still bad enough to make me want to have my own, made of pure eternal night, and in which I feel good, even if I know that it is just in my head.
You’ve been dabbling in different genres, or are least are not a genre purist. How do you contend with purism in for example the metal scene? Do you consider yourself an experimentalist of sorts?
I'm definitely not a genre purist, but still my music is too much into the "song" principle to be considered as experimental I guess. Despite this I have absolutely no boundaries when it comes to creating those songs and I am ready to instill the most iconoclastic elements into them. And I don't hesitate to go very far, even to the point of surprising myself, the more I'm surprised and the more I'm getting euphoric. Nevertheless I am into classic, and even utterly classic stuff too, for example I attend the Pyrenean Warrior Open Air every year, that is the most old-fart classic traditional heavy metal fest you can dream of, and I love it!
Any future adventures we should hear about?
I hope I manage to record the new album this year, it will not be as amazing and surprising as Fäerie Uber Alles, but it will be a collection of songs that I want to put out there. A "European tour" in May is in preparation, and one day I hope I can tour the USA finally.
Nuit Noire descends unto KRAAK Fest 2023 March 4 at Het Bos. Tickets here!