Vision Eternel (formerly Vision Éternel) is a Canadian-American dark ambient, shoegaze and space-rock band based in Montreal, Quebec.^[1] The band was formed in Edison, New Jersey, United States in January 2007 by guitarist Alexandre Julien, while experimenting with various guitar effects during a studio recording session.^[2] In August 2007, after having recorded its first two extended plays in New Jersey, the band relocated to Montreal, Quebec, Canada.^[3] Over the course of its first year, the band had several other members before Julien ultimately decided to continue Vision Eternel alone. Some of the artists and musicians who have participated in or collaborated with Vision Eternel over the years include members of Mutiny Within, Priestess, An Albatross, Hacride, Boize, Eliminator, Mad Parish, Soufferance, Cara Neir, Beyond the Dune Sea, Citadel Swamp and sister-project Vision Lunar.^{[1][4][5][6][25]}

The band's name is pronounced as Vision Eternal is in English; the purpose of the name's original spelling is purely for aesthetics.^[7] From 2007 to 2018, the band spelled its name Vision Éternel, with an acute accent over the E; the accent has since been dropped with the band now performing as Vision Eternel.

The band is noted for its concept albums.^[8] Recurring themes center around infatuation, abandonment, emptiness, heartbreak, loneliness, isolation, depression, melancholia, nostalgia and nihilism.^[2][9][10] Because of his dissatisfaction being labelled and narrowed down to an ambient, dark ambient or post-rock band, Julien ultimately coined the new term melogaze, which according to the band, bridged a connection between the style of music played and the dramatic and emotional themes represented on their concept albums.^[11] The band is also noted for portraying an old fashioned, bygone era of Montreal. Part of this image is recreated in music videos and promotional pictures in which the band wears fedora hats and turned-up overcoats; an appearance which Julien accredited to his obsession with classic films, especially film noirs (and neo-noirs), expressionism and melodramas. Directors such as Alfred Hitchcock, Douglas Sirk and Jean-Pierre Melville have been cited as major influences for Vision Eternel.^[12][13][14]

Vision Eternel has released five extended plays: Seul Dans L'obsession in 2007, Un Automne En Solitude in 2008, Abondance De Périls in 2010, The Last Great Torch Song in 2012 and Echoes From Forgotten Hearts in 2015.^[15][16] The first two EPs were released through Mortification Records, while Abridged Pause Recordings has released the three most recent.^[7] In 2009, a Japanese-exclusive compilation album entitled An Anthology Of Past Misfortunes was released by Frozen Veins Records, which compiled all of the material originally released by Mortification Records with unreleased b-sides and a poster.^[17][18] A limited edition retrospective boxed set entitled An Anthology Of Past Misfortunes (of no relation to the identically-titled 2009 Japanese compilation) was released by Abridged Pause Recordings in 2018. The boxed set contains all of the material released by the band up to that point along with previously unreleased material and memorabilia.^[19][20][21] Vision Eternel has been working on its sixth extended play, expected for release in early 2020.^[22][23]

Vision Éternel was formed in Edison, New Jersey, United States in January 2007 by Canadian-born guitarist Alexandre Julien, while experimenting with audio effects at his then-newly built recording studio, Mortified Studio.^[2][26] Early on, Julien was influenced to compose music by his uncle Stephane Fania, bassist and keyboardist in the Montreal heavy metal band Boize.^[27] Initially, Vision Éternel was part of the Triskalyon collective; a group of bands and musicians with common beliefs who shared band members and had their own vanity record label, Mortification Records.^[28][29][30] The Triskalyon collective also included future members of French progressive metal band Hacride, which later signed to French record label Listenable Records and Norwegian record label Indie Recordings; and members of British psychedelic black metal band A Forest Of Stars, which later signed to German record label Prophecy Productions.^{[31][32][33][34]} Vision Éternel was immediately signed to Mortification Records and was invited to participate in the Various Artists compilation album Triskalyon Promo Pack.^[35][36][37]

Vision Éternel's debut extended play Seul Dans L'obsession was released less than a month later on February 14, 2007.^[38] The release was a concept album, covering the various phases of a heartbreak: from love at first sight to emotional abandonment, denial, melancholia and finally narcissistic withdrawal and isolation; and was deliberatly released on Saint Valentine's Day to tie into the concept.^[2][39] Seul Dans L'obsession was promoted with a music video for the single Love Within Narcosis which premiered on YouTube a week prior to the EP's release.^[40][41] The music video was filmed in the band's hometown, in Edison, New Jersey, and featured scenes that closely resembled the album artwork's photography.^[42][44] Love Within Isolation was released as the second single in August 2007 and helped Vision Éternel peak on the independent Myspace Music Top Artists charts. Vision Éternel reached No. 6 on the Shoegaze chart, No. 21 on the Ambient chart and No. 52 on the Experimental chart.^{[10][45][46][47]}

In the May 2007, Vision Éternel's line-up expanded. Former Triskalyon guitarist Philip Altobelli joined the band and worked on several songs.^[4][48] After his departure from Vision Éternel, Altobelli studied classical guitar at Kean University in Union County, New Jersey and became a music teacher.^[49][50] Julien then briefly rehearsed with Brandon Jacobs that summer, who simultaneously played in the progressive/melodic death metal band Mutiny Within. But the New Jersey metal band was gaining interest from several major metal record labels and Mutiny Within eventually signed with Roadrunner Records, forcing Jacobs to dedicate himself to only one band.^[51][52] In August, Julien moved back to his native country and relocated Vision Éternel to Montreal, Quebec, Canada. ^[10][2][3]

In Canada, Vision Éternel found new band members.

In late 2007, guitarist Josh McConnell joined for a brief period.

McConnell's input would have brought Vision Éternel to a completely different style, had his schedule not interfered with his other bands, heavy metal act Mad Parish and Iron Maiden tribute Brand New World.^[53] A similar situation occurred with RCA Records band Priestess when bassist Mike Dyball had to pull out to dedicate his time to composing Priestess' sophomore album Prior to the Fire.^[54][55]

In January 2008, Vision Éternel was joined by Nidal Mourad on acoustic rhythm guitar and Adam Kennedy on lead electric guitar.^[56] The band was then entirely comprised of Montreal newcomers: Julien, who had only recently moved back to the city after growing up in New Jersey (though he was originally born on the West Island); Mourad, who had grown up in Slave Lake, Alberta where he fronted the metalcore band Natesment; and Kennedy, who was from Canada's capital region in Ottawa, Ontario, where he had dabbled in hard rock, hip-hop and electronic music, performing in the duo AK & Lord V and under the pseudonym Orpheus.^{[1][57][58][59]} During this partnership, Vision Éternel evolved from an ambient project into a full space-rock and post-rock band.^[10] Mourad left the band in early February to focus on his solo acoustic material and eventually became a successful disc jockey, performing as Ziko Ghost.^[60] Kennedy remained with Vision Éternel for some time but he eventually left to establish himself as a multi-instrumentalist record producer and audio engineer. He has since played in Beyond the Dune Sea, 1993, Acid Cross, The Owl Eyes Project and Wake the Wolf.^[59][61]

In March 2008, Julien opted to continue Vision Éternel on his own and released the second extended play Un Automne En Solitude. Vision Éternel's sophomore release had been entirely recorded the year prior between May and August 2007, while still in New Jersey and only months after the release of Seul Dans L'obsession.^[62] But the album had been indefinitely shelved when finding band members became a priority. Un Automne En Solitude was released on March 14, 2008, through Mortification Records and was a direct sequel to the debut EP.^[63] The story picked up following the same heartbreak and incorporated the theme from Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 motion picture Vertigo, in which a "man meets woman, man loses woman, man meets woman again, man loses woman again".^[64] This concept was stated to have been directly influenced by Julien's personal relationships.^[65] Un Automne En Solitude was promoted throughout the year with the single Season In Absence, which had two different music videos; one directed by Belgian musician and graphic designer Niels Geybels and filmed in Antwerp through his company Depraved Designs; the other, directed by Julien, was photographed around Upstate New York and Montreal and was edited at Montreal's Mortified Studios.^{[66][67][68][69]}

In July 2008, Vision Éternel announed a split 7" vinyl with Californian post-rock band Ethereal Beauty.^[70][71] This release was in preparation for several years and ultimately evolved into a split with Bonfires For Nobody when Ethereal Beauty changed its name in 2010.^[72][73] But it was eventually cancelled when the latter band failed to deliver any material and Vision Éternel wound up using its reserved content on the 2012 EP The Last Great Torch Song. In September 2008, Vision Éternel was signed to Montreal-based post-metal and blackgaze record label Abridged Pause Recordings.^[74] Vision Éternel was among the initial four bands signed to Abridged Pause Recordings' roster, alongside Ethereal Beauty, French melodic grindcore band Dreams of the Drowned and German depressive black metal band Black Autumn.^{[75][76][77][78]} In late 2008, Tokyo, Japan-based black metal, black ambient and dark ambient record label Frozen Veins Records put together a compilation of Vision Éternel's first two extended plays.^[44] The limited edition compact disc, intended exclusively for the Japanese market, featured Seul Dans L'obsession, Un Automne En Solitude, three unreleased b-sides and a poster.^[71][79] Titled An Anthology Of Past Misfortunes, it was released to commemorate the two-year anniversary of the first EP, on February 14, 2009.^[17][80]

Vision Éternel debuted on Abridged Pause Recordings with the release of Abondance De Périls, the band's third concept EP.^[81][82] The extended play was released as part of a double bill on March 9, 2010, together with former guitarist Adam Kennedy's new band, Beyond the Dune Sea's eponymous album.^[83] Abondance De Périls was also mastered by Adam Kennedy at his new recording studio Vital Philosophy.^[84] The promotion for Abondance De Périls spanned several singles, beginning with a re-recording of Love Within Narcosis titled Narcosis Re-Recorded, which was a b-side from the EP and was only available on Saint Valentine's Day 2010 on Vision Éternel's Myspace page.^[85] This was followed a week later, on February 20 by the Bandcamp-exclusive Rehearsal November 30th 2009, another b-side featuring a medley of songs spanning all three extended plays and recorded during a rehearsal.^[86][87] Once Abondance De Périls was released in March, Thoughts As Naïvety was pushed as the first single.^[88] Later in the year, Thoughts As Solicitation and Thoughts As Affection became promotional singles as they appeared on several post-rock and ambient radio stations, blogs and YouTube channels.^[89][90][91] Finally, another b-side, Thoughts As Consolation was released on the Various Artists compilation Great Messengers: Palms.^[72][93][94] In 2011, Vision Éternel was mentioned in a book about post-rock music titled La Croche Lune: Musique émotionnelles, mouvement gothique by David D'Halleine.^[95][96]

The Last Great Torch Song was released as a follow-up to Abondance De Périls on March 14, 2012 through Abridged Pause Recordings.^[97][98] Vision Éternel's fourth extended play, another concept EP, was filled with guest appearances by musicians and collaborators. Some of the featured guests include Eiman Nejad, former guitarist of Mutiny Within who was then playing in the thrash metal and speed metal band Eliminator; Howard Change, former member of An Albatross and vocalist of Throne of Mortality; Alexander Fawcett from Oceanus and Arboretus; and Garry Brents of Cara Neir and Parabstruse.^{[5][6][65][98][99]} Garry Brents also mastered The Last Great Torch Song in addition to providing keyboards.^[100][101] The cover artwork for both Abondance De Périls and The Last Great Torch Song was photographed by French photographer Marina Polak, who had immigrated to Canada in 2009 and befriended the band.^[100][101] Two songs from The Last Great Torch Song appeared in the soundtrack to Lucid Dreaming in New Jersey, an independent feature film written, directed and starring Howard Change.^[102]

In August 2014, Vision Éternel was commissioned to compose the film score to an American-Icelander international co-production short film.^[8][103] However, the short film's American screenwriter and director vanished with all the funds for the project, leaving the film unfinished and the music unreleased.^[104][105] The music that Vision Éternel had delivered was highly influenced by Clint Mansell's soundtrack from Duncan Jones' 2009 award-winning film Moon.^[106][107] Instead of giving up on the material, Julien edited, re-recorded, re-mixed and re-conceptualized the soundtrack into a new Vision Éternel album.^[105][108] Echoes From Forgotten Hearts was released through Abridged Pause Recordings on Saint Valentine's Day 2015.^[109] The concept album retained a general soundtrack theme and feel, with each song titled Piece Number One through Piece Number Seven in French. The song Pièce No. Sept was released as a single in 2015. The album graphics for Echoes From Forgotten Hearts were designed by French graphic designer Jeremy Roux, who had previously created Vision Éternel's band logo in 2008 and was later hired for several promotional band photo shoots.^{[109][110][111]}

A music video was filmed for Echoes From Forgotten Hearts' second single Pièce No. Trois and released on August 28, 2017.^[112] The film noir-influenced music video featured footage photographed by Jeremy Roux around Mount Royal, Old Montreal, Downtown Montreal and the Old Port of Montreal; and was edited by Hong Kong-based visual artist Vasiliy Atutov.^[113][114] Some of the key locations photographed in the video include Dalhousie Station, Viger Station, Windsor Station, Harbour City, the John Young Monument, the Five Roses Flour Building, the Sun Life Building, the Saint Joseph's Oratory on the Westmount Summit, the Ravenscrag Mansion, the Redpath Hall, Dorchester Square and Dominion Square, the Pied-du-Courant Prison, the Jacques Cartier Bridge and the original Royal Bank of Canada Building.^[14][113] The music video was deliberately released on the day of Academy Award-winning cinematographer James Wong Howe's birthday, to honor his film noir influence, an event that was also highlighted by Google Doodle.^[115][116]

Vision Éternel celebrated its ten-year anniversary in 2017 with several events, including the music video for Pièce No. Trois.^[14][113] The band also worked with renowned illustrator, calligrapher and logo designer Christophe Szpajdel (known for his work with Emperor, Metallica, Foo Fighters, Rihanna, Calvin Harris, Bruno Mars, Trivium, Dimmu Borgir, Wolves in the Throne Room, Abigail Williams, etc.) on a new band logo which appeared on exclusive merchandise and apparel, including t-shirts, stickers and posters.^{[117][118][119][120][121][122][123][124]} On April 15, 2018, the band released the retrospective boxed set An Anthology Of Past Misfortunes (of no relationed to the identically-titled 2009 Japanese compilation) through Abridged Pause Recordings. The boxed set contains remastered versions of all of the material previously released by Vision Éternel, spread out over five compact discs, along with a compact cassette tape compilation of previously unreleased material, stickers, business card flyers and postcard liner notes.^{[19][20][125][126]}

Vision Éternel was influenced by post-punk and alternative rock bands and artists of the 1990's such as Faith No More, Swans and The Smashing Pumpkins.^{[2][65][136][137]} Black metal bands Bathory, Dissection, Immortal and Burzum, death metal band Morbid Angel, speed metal/thrash metal band Eliminator and heavy metal artist Ozzy Osbourne have also been influential to the band's style; while Elton John, Pink Floyd, Bruce Cockburn, Frank Sinatra and film composers Clint Mansell, Bernard Herrmann and Ennio Morricone were responsible for the sound.^{[8][136][138]}

Vision Éternel is generally referred to as an ambient band, though it relies heavily on stringed instruments, such as electric guitars, acoustic guitars and electric basses, a style more frequently associated with post-rock music.^[139][140] Vision Éternel, however, maintains that its music is too minimalist to be fully qualified as post-rock and contains far more elements of dream pop, shoegaze, ethereal and dark ambient, combined with space rock, post-punk, emo, post-hardcore and indie rock.^[140] Because of this, Vision Éternel coined its own genre called melogaze.^[11][72] Melogaze was made up of two words: shoegaze, a genre the band sympathizes with because of its introspective and introverted elements; and melodrama, a theme that is reflected in each of the band's concept albums.^[11] Incidentally, the etymology of the word melodrama is itself a combination of melos (Greek for music) and drame (French for drama).

The band's recurring conceptual themes revolve around drama. Topics and emotions such as love at first sight, lust, desire, anticipation, infatuation, passion, affection, love, followed by heartbreak, abandonment, rejection, disappointment, resentment, emptiness, loneliness, grief, regret, suffering, sadness, sorrow, remorse, and ultimately leading to social isolation, depression, dysthymia, melancholia, nostalgia, narcissistic withdrawal as well as nihilism are often represented.^{[2][9][11][44]} Vision Éternel founder Alexandre Julien accredits this to both his past personal relationships, and to the music and film industry environment in which he was brought up.^[141] One of Julien's uncles, Stephane Fania, was a prominent musician in the Montreal heavy metal and hard rock scenes throughout the 1980's and 1990's.^[144] Fania was a founding member, the bassist and the keyboardist in Boize, a heavy metal band affiliated with Aquarius Records.^[27] Fania also owned and operated a record label, a music publishing company, a film production company (to produce music videos), two live music concert venues, a recording studio and later, an art gallery.^[142][143]

Two of Julien's other uncles, brothers Pierre Bourdon and Francois Bourdon, were active in the Montreal music and film industries.^[144] Pierre Bourdon played keyboards in the cold wave band Innervoice in the 1980's and then guitar in a folk duo called Pete & Al.^[145][146] He was also a cameraman who worked on such films as The Paperboy, directed by Douglas Jackson, and The Lifeforce Experiment, directed by Piers Haggard and starring Donald Sutherland.^[147] Francois Bourdon played bass in a few underground Montreal bands in the early 1990's and later became a cinematographer and worked on the cult film Subconscious Cruelty, directed by Karim Hussain.^[148][149] Francois was also responsible for procuring Julien his first guitar. Several of Julien's extended family members also played guitar, keyboards, piano and recorder.

Julien was also influenced by his environment.

Moving to Edison, New Jersey, a township named after one of cinema's most prominent inventors, Thomas Edison, was a revelation for Julien who lived near the Thomas Alva Edison Memorial Tower and Museum.^[150] The house in which Julien grew up also appeared in the 2003 film School of Rock, which was partly filmed in Edison, New Jersey.^[151] Growing up connected to the film industry, Julien started watching classic films at an early age and has often cited that Vision Éternel's music was more influenced by the cinematic visuals of film noir (and neo-noir), expressionism and drama, than by other bands and musicians.^[12] Directors such as Alfred Hitchcock, Douglas Sirk, Henri-Georges Clouzot, Jean-Pierre Melville, Jules Dassin, Billy Wilder, Fritz Lang, F. W. Murnau, Woody Allen, Henry Hathaway, Robert Siodmak and Otto Preminger; and cinematographers such as James Wong Howe, Robert Burks, John Alton, Joseph MacDonald, Mutz Greenbaum, Elwood Bredell, Nicholas Musuraca, Stanley Cortez, Norbert Brodine, Robert Krasker, Harry J. Wild, Arthur Edeson and Joseph Valentine have often been cited.^{[12][13][14][113][152][153]} Photographer Yousuf Karsh's distinctive style has also been credited for the visual presentation of Vision Éternel in photo shoots, with Julien often dressed in a fedora hat and turned-up overcoat, depicted in stark black and white contrasts of shadow and light.^{[12][154][155][156]}