Mayerling - Finis Terrae (2026)

Returning to Hands in the Dark for the third time, French artist Sylvain Bombled slides into kosmische territory on 'Finis Terrae', guided by the inclement weather on Ushant.

There's an impressive amount of territory covered on 'Finis Terrae'. The album was recorded last winter, when Bombled was hold up on Ushant, an island on the western end of the English channel. Struck by the natural beauty of his surroundings, even while the weather chopped and changed around him, Bombled wrote these five pieces to reflect his lived reality, translating the movement into music. On opener 'Herminia', it's with 'Zuckerzeit'-like drum and synth sequences that Bombled leads into dizzy trance territory in the final act, but the clouds shift on 'Plight' and the producer slows things down, splicing field recordings into his sloshing synths and ferric, BoC-inspired beats.

There's light in the distance on the hopeful 'She Builds Myths' and on the title track, Bombled pulls out all the stops, fabricating an EDM-inspired slow electro anthem that'll surely speak to anyone who's ever wondered what a collaboration between Johnny Jewel, Mogwai and Ulrich Schnauss might sound like.