The Outsider - Digital EP

🪦 This is LOVECRAFTIAN INSTRUMENTAL METAL! 🪦

A three-part instrumental piece for electric guitar and symphonic orchestra, inspired from H.P. Lovecraft's tale, The Outsider.

The music closely follows the story, like a movie soundtrack: the orchestral texture and general fantastic and macabre feel easily remind the style of Danny Elfman.

If you're into prog metal involving multitudes of melodies, insane guitar lines, and/or elaborate orchestrations, then this music is made FOR YOU!

 => This download also includes the FULL OFFICIAL MUSIC-VIDEO in maximum 4K quality of uncompressed music and frame!

Behind the music: 

I've been an admirer of Lovecraft's literature for years now. And The Outsider was actually one of the first tales I've ever read; but the first time I read it, I instantly knew I had to do something about it. Since then, I must've read it again and again a hundred times!

A few years later, I helped a friend of mine, Quentin De Tienda, who's an outstanding bass player (he recorded the bass on the track Prequel and, of course, on The Outsider actually), with a project of his own: he intended, with a bunch of friends, to record an immersive audio book inspired by Carach Angren's album, This is no Fairytale. 

He asked me to compose the music, which was to be dark orchestral music matching the story-telling (which I also recorded, and had a lot of fun^^) and reminding Carach Angren's style. And within a month, I had written an orchestral piece following the different passages of the tale.

It was really sounding amazing, but in the end they used it only once for a kind of contest and never played it again. Meanwhile, I had already started to write some ideas for The Outsider. In the early days, I immediately divided the story into three parts: this division seemed really obvious to me, and allows the music to match the tale more closely as each track adapts its atmosphere to its own part.

However, I was stuck with the main theme of the first part and was never happy with what I came up with; until one day, I listened back to what I'd composed for Quentin, and it hit me! The opening theme of his audiobook was THE theme for The Outsider - Part I: Alone!

So, I asked my friend for his approval to use again part of the music I'd written. Don't get me wrong, I hate to use ideas I'd already put elsewhere, but they were not using it in the end and most of all, this theme was first written with the same idea in mind: a house isolated in the woods, a dark environment... Its atmosphere matched perfectly what I was looking for!

And then that was it! I've taken a few themes back from this project (and another one actually) and re-orchestrated them in this release. Just listening back to this main theme I talked to you about was enough to get me going and finish the whole piece.

Behind the video:

It is really complicated to imagine a music-video about this tale. I'm not gonna tell you more about that since I don't wanna spoil anything in case you haven't read it yet; but when you do, you'll understand why.

One day, I'm talking with my best friend, Mathieu Hoarau, who's an actor and a writer (and sometimes works as a director as well) with whom I've worked in many projects over the years. And in the end he kinda convinced me to shoot a music video. And sometime later, I stumbled upon this gorgeous medieval castle (Château de Varennes-Lès-Mâcon) and just thought "This is it! This is where we have to shoot!" The idea was planted!^^

I became friends with the owner, Madam Megny-Marquet, and started to organize the project. 

At first we intended to shoot a three-part music video matching the whole story. But unfortunately, I ran a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter that didn't go well because of multiple issues with the platform... 

Then I didn't have the means to see this project through, but with the help of my followers, my friends and my family, we managed to shoot a simpler, but beautiful and congruent video for Part I: Alone.

It is more of a regular music-video, but still has a gorgeous macabre aesthetic thanks to the wonderful support of Madam Megny-Marquet who granted us access to her beautiful home.

And in the end, this video therefore matches the atmosphere of this fantastic tale, and even contains important hints that relate to its strange story...

Credits:

• Music composed and orchestrated by Louis Nas

• All guitars performed by Louis Nas

• Bass performed by Quentin De Tienda

• Virtual instruments editing by Louis Nas

• Mixed and mastered by Thibaud Pick at studio "L'Artisterie" (Lyon, FRANCE)

• Artwork by Car Lomasaga