VELVET THUNDER

This album is Lesoir at their most musically rounded and complete – grand but intimate, progressive but direct. With every listen, new details appear: hidden textures, emotional turns and quiet moments that slowly reveal the full weight of the record. This is clever stuff!

This record marks a defining moment for the art-rock band. Tomorrow Is Now Today, Lesoir’s new album out now via V2 Records, captures the point at which years of touring, writing, refining and evolving come together in a sound that feels urgent, cinematic and beautifully crisp and rounded. The title Tomorrow Is Now Today captures the central thought behind the album in that the future is no longer something distant – the things we hope for, fear, dream of or fight for, are already present in the world around us. For Lesoir, that idea carries both urgency and hope: do not wait for tomorrow to act, feel, change or speak out, because tomorrow has already begun today.

Since forming in Maastricht in 2009, Lesoir have built an international following through immersive songwriting, emotional dynamics and a live reputation that continues to grow. The band’s reach has taken them far beyond the Netherlands, in-cluding four headline tours in China and extensive touring across Europe. Their five-week European tour with prog icons Riverside in 2019, followed by a triumphant return with Riverside in 2023, introduced Lesoir to a wider international audience, sharing stages along the way with the likes of The Gathering, Evergrey, The Pineapple Thief, Airbag, Delain and Within Temptation.

Lesoir’s festival history further underlines their position within the European art-rock and progressive scene, with appearances at festivals such as Night Of The Prog, IO Pages Festival, Midsummer Prog Festival, Morvala Festival, Fekete Zaj Festival and Nene Valley Rock Festival. These stages have helped shape the band’s identity as a powerful live act – atmospheric and emotional, but also rhythmically driven, dynamic and heavy when the music demands it.

With Tomorrow Is Now Today, Lesoir take that identity further. The album builds on a long creative relationship with producer John Cornfield, whose work has helped shape several important chapters in the band’s catalogue. For this new phase, Lesoir have also continued their collaboration with Paul Reeve, known for his vocal work with Matt Bellamy of Muse, while Steve Kitch of The Pineapple Thief handled the mastering. Together, this production team has helped the band sharpen its sound without losing the raw emotion, atmosphere and live energy that define Lesoir – and believe me, the results are impressive!

This new album embraces melody, contrast, atmosphere and emotional weight. Fragile passages open into bombastic sections; delicate textures are placed against heavy dynamics; progressive structures are present, but always in service of the song. Live percussion, a real string quartet and carefully developed arrangements give the album a broader, more cinematic character, while the band’s unmistakable sense of groove and tension remains at its core. The album reflects on conflict, empathy, love, responsibility and the fragile state of the world, and together the songs form a powerful collection of voices, emotions and questions connected by one shared truth: the time to care is now.

*****

First up is the recent single, also featured in the visualiser below. Easing you gently into the band’s trademark laidback but sophisticated vibe, Is It Nothing is a beautifully crafted track, at 7:07 minutes the longest on the album, and you’re immediately entranced by the peerless production and the sumptuous swirl of the unfolding music. Compared with what I’ve heard of their previous material, it strikes me that this is a smoother, more masterfully melodic composition, the time flies by as you’re transported through huge swelling choruses, languid flowing passages, some great percussion in the middle section, simply beautful singing from Maartje, and a superbly developing alomst rock opera end-piece featuring a gorgeous guitar solo. What a start!

Back To You has another slow, gentle start, acoustic guitar and strings providing the foundations before another nicely arranged percussion-led section ensues. Tinkling keys, fascinating beats programming from Ramon carry you through. Short and very sweet, with another rousing conclusion, this is a slick creation. Hidden Fire follows, introduced by more intriguing percussion / beats programming before some distinctly beefy chords enter stage left. Multi-layered vocals top this heavier sound, followed by some great interplay between guitar and synths working around a rising construct. Flute follows in an almost Middle-Eastern vibe, this is another thoroughly immersive number that swoops and swirls around you, all in just four and a half minutes.

Nadeli has a different feel to it, an instrumental with an off-beat rhythm that again flows with an orchestral sense of panache, I do find myself hugely taken with the end-product of these seven very gifted musicians. How can I describe this – it’s modern Prog for people who don’t necessarily like Prog?? (me!…). At times there’s maybe a hint of jazz about this one, but then it morphs into a much more rock oriented work-out, maybe a hint of Pink Floyd even, again developing around a cadence of notes, exploring and diving into it with a succession of solos from the instruments involved.

Free Pass has a quiet bassline slowly rumbling in before exploding into a Prog-metal number. The bassline remains insistent, bubbling away under the stringed instruments and the quite strident vocals. There’s a loose, very live feel to this one, again punctuated by some natty percussion and a hint of psychedelia before reverting to the punchy riff. La Meme Langue features french lyrics in a very laid-back “parisien jazz club” mood, a sparse arrangement that’s delicate, lulling you into snoozy space before lambasting you with a chunk of major riffery, that fades and ends almost before you know it! Stay Close To Me then reminds me of the opener in its full-fat sound with a luscious melody sung over the top. Another very accomplished arrangement, the perfect example of this band moving freely between light and shade. This one’s a real anthem, you can imagine it being a “show-finale” live, replete with lots of lighters flaring.

Pendulum drifts in like an energetic John Martyn “echoplex” special, lots of beat-programming, multi-layered repetition. A fast-paced number that also sounds like a Fleetwood Mac backing rhythm, it provides a great vehicle for individual sound-bites and solos. Insanely hypnotic and twitchy, organic in its development, a fascinating instrumental work-out! Army of Love is then a perfect example of Maartje’s peerless singing, floating above a deceptively simple backing. There’s a subtle blend of crisp drums, subdued keys, restrained guitar, punctuated with slabs of meaty full-band melody, which form the vehicle for some fearless solos. As a whole, it’s a sumptuously rounded piece of grown-up rock.

The album signs off with the title track, more gentle intro work plus Maartje’s clear vocals, piano notes dropped in, mystical multi-layered harmonies, a gradual enfolding of electronica, before fading into the cinematic musical sunset. Compared to what I’ve heard previously, this album is Lesoir at their most musically rounded and complete, grand but intimate, progressive but direct. With every listen, new details appear: hidden textures, emotional turns and quiet moments that slowly reveal the full weight of the record. This is clever stuff! Tomorrow Is Now Today is an ambitious and mature chapter in Lesoir’s discography – the sound of a band stepping fully into who they are, with more courage, belief and emotional force than ever before. An approach which I suspect will win them an army of new fans – me included!

Tomorrow is not waiting anymore. Tomorrow is now today.