[Cover photo credit to Roddy Cunningham]

French instrumentalist Loup Barrow has released new single “Passio”, the first track taken off his upcoming album Immineo, arriving June 7, 2024 via Sonic Ritual. He found that it was only after he escaped chaotic Parisian city life that he was able to transform his emotions and thoughts into music for this album.

Regarding the single, he says:

It’s a mature piece where the acceptance of impossible love brings tender nostalgia.

And about the album’s process he adds:

I left Paris and went into exile, alone, by the sea, in the middle of nature.

Among the items he took with him was his instrument, a Cristal Baschet, a delicate glass organ comprised of 56 chromatically-tuned glass rods. It’s an instrument so scarce that only a handful of them exist in the world, and Loup is only one of five professional musicians who perform on one.

His journey took him to Finistère, the western tip of Brittany, which the French call Penn ar Bed (“The end of the world”). While there in nature, he found his greatest source of inspiration.

He explains:

I spent my reclusion facing the sea and the cliffs beaten by the wind and the waves. Early in the morning or at dusk, I would walk along the coast, often meeting no one in my path. Immineo is the expression of dawn, the glow of the cliffs in the setting sun, the waves crashing on the rocks, the sound of pebbles rolling under the pressure of the tides. It’s also a reflection of our nature. I composed the album in a poetic fever, in one go. The tides marking the temporality of my days. I came out stunned, dazzled.