Cold synth carnage from Baltimore
Who?
L’Avenir is the alias of Jason Sloan, a professor, video artist, composer and veteran electronicist who lives in Baltimore, Maryland. Sloan says that the music he makes primarily falls under the umbrella of “cold synth”. But it touches numerous genres, with stylish, ethereal electronics and intense clap-centric beats acting as an unwavering foundation for deep, reverb-soaked vocals and fiercely poetic lyrics.
Why L’Avenir?
Although the name L’Avenir literally translates from French as “the future”, a single encounter with elegiac tracks like ‘Shine So Bright (In Silver)’, ‘The Pageantry Of Loneliness’ and ‘Evanesce’ will tell you that Sloan takes a good deal of inspiration from the past. Not only does he hold up artists like Fad Gadget, Depeche Mode and DAF as his primary influences, he also creates every note of L’Avenir’s music using analogue equipment. But this is not to say that L’Avenir’s only achievement is successfully mimicking the past. It’s more that he’s found himself a big old vintage lens and is using it to look directly at that flaming ball of future in the sky, making music that remains evocative of those acts which have clearly inspired him, but which also offers a glimpse of something darker, something more mysterious… something unknown.
Tell Us More…
Earlier this year, L’Avenir released a split album with fellow Baltimorean and post-punk/synthpop devotee Kiss Of The Whip (Tristan Victor). And now Sloan is writing a full-length follow-up to 2021’s ‘Shadow & Reflection’. The new record should be finished soon and is due for release sometime in late winter. A perfect album for those long, dark nights, one suspects.
L’Avenir and Kiss Of The Whip’s ‘Split’ is out via Bandcamp
