Sweet like chocolate
L’Eclair, the genre-hopping Swiss ensemble formed and led by Bulgarian brothers Stefan and Yavor Lilov, release their latest album Cloud Drifter this week, touting a dynamite coalition of Afro-electronic/Nyege Nyege Tapes-type beats with the irresistible but off kilter groups of Can and Tortoise.
Having toured with the likes of The Cinematic Orchestra and WITCH – including writing and recording for the latter’s 2023 and forthcoming 2025 albums – they’ve assembled a vast network of likeminded musicians, with a whole clutch of different collaborators on Cloud Drifter. We love it, so we asked Stefan Lilov to tell us more…
This is your first album with LA-based label Innovative Leisure. What drew you to work with this particular label for Cloud Drifter?
After some good years of collaboration with the Swiss label Bongo Joe, we wanted to expand our sound & audience by looking for an international label to work with for our next record. Innovative Leisure has always been a label we’ve followed and felt they would understand our music because of their history of releases also ( BADBADNOTGOOD). After they released our collaborative record with Maston « Souvenir » in 2021, it felt natural to work with them for CLOUD DRIFTER.
You’ve described Cloud Drifter as a departure from your instrumental roots. What inspired you to incorporate vocals this time around?
We’ve always loved pop music & were getting tired of being assimilated to an Instrumental/World music scene too closely related to a « Retro-mania ». We felt it was the time with Cloud Drifter to change our musical direction & finally embrace what we’ve always wanted to present, a multi-genre LP melding everything we love while keeping the focus on making it sound modern.
How did you select the vocal collaborators for this album? Was it a natural extension of your existing network or something more curated?
It was a bit of both honestly. The likes of Forest Law & gild named GOLDEN were more a natural extension because they’re our friends and we’ve always loved their work so bringing them in was easy. We’re huge fans of Pink Siifu & he was always our first choice so having him on feels pretty cool. Gelli Haha is maybe the guest with the most curation as she was unsigned back when She was proposed to us by Innovative Leisure & We directly felt she has something unique going. We’re happy to see that her music is being appreciated now that she’s releasing her first singles.
‘Odessos’ feels like a true reflection of your live energy. Was capturing that live feeling part of your vision from the start?
Yes. That was also a big part of the discussion with IL. We were always not satisfied with the way ourrecords didn’t manage to reproduce the roughness & dynamics of our live shows. Therefore, I remember us in the studio being only focused on bringing that live energy back. It was fun.
The album was crafted over four years if we’re correct. What challenges or breakthroughs did you experience during that time?
Dealing between an intensive touring program and us changing our sound and looking for a new label for it was something that did take some time to be done the right way. It was also exciting to compose & rehearse songs for potential vocal collaborations without really knowing the result. We did also the whole production work on the record before sending it to mixing & mastering, so we’ve learned a lot during this period. We’re ready to roll on the releases now.
Working with artists like Pink Siifu and Girl Named GOLDEN brings unique textures. How did their contributions shape specific tracks like ‘Replica M001’ and ‘The Glitch’?
The tracks were finished instrumentally when we send them the songs and I remember after each one of them send their first take, it was directly matching. Pink Siifu did one freestyle & we’ve kept it that way. girl named GOLDEN brought such a modern almost r&b twist to ‘The Glitch’ which definitively brings the song somewhere else.
Your past work has drawn comparisons to instrumental pioneers like Can and Tortoise. How did those influences evolve on Cloud Drifter?
Can is always somewhere in our mind. It’s a band we love but never tried to emulate too much musically, it’s their concept, the way they think & see music that has always been an inspiration for us. So, in a sense, I feel with CLOUD DRIFTER, we made it possible for ourselves to be free to do anything we want
Tell us about the title Cloud Drifter. What does it signify to you?
Being a sci-fi record, a Cloud Drifter would be somebody wandering through the clouds, maybe on a spaceship, maybe levitating. We’ve visioned every song of our record as a planet on an imaginary solar system. Our will to never stick to one genre of music is tied with the meaning of a Cloud Drifter.
You’ve worked closely with WITCH, both live and in the studio. How did those experiences inform your approach on this album?
One thing I’ve learned with WITCH & that’s the most important thing live or in the studio, is to have fun & enjoy.
Can you talk about the creative dynamic between you as brothers, and how that plays into the band’s direction?
With Yavor, we’re always making up loops & sending them to each other. For Cloud Drifter, the number of demos became quite big & we had to cut a lot of songs to be able to fit it on a LP. We always don’t share the same knowledges as Yavor is also a professional musical engineer/producer while being also a creative force & Stef is more of a creative A&R.
Tracks like ‘Memphis’ and ‘Vertigo’ hint at a wide sonic range. Was it difficult to maintain cohesion across such a diverse album?
Not going to lie, it was an intense experience to maintain cohesion between all these songs. But once we got all the vocals, it all made sense for us.
How did your production work for artists like Varnish La Piscine and Maston influence your own music on this record?
It’s a gift to be able to spend some time in the studio with Varnish La Piscine. He’s a proper genius and seeing him build melodies of chords changes has been influential for us on this record.
With your KEXP sessions gaining significant attention, how do you see your live performance style evolving alongside your studio work?
For the moment, people know of L’Eclair as a dance party band, but our dream is to propose something like Cloud Drifter for an hour and a half in front of an audience, with an orchestra, singers and more spiritual moments mixed with the high-tempo madness which you’re more familiar with.
Which track on Cloud Drifter do you feel best represents where L’Eclair is heading creatively?
We feel a track like ‘Vertigo’ represents best our direction in term of progressive club music mixed with organic instruments as there is a full orchestra playing on this song.
What do you hope listeners take away from this more collaborative, vocal-forward version of L’Eclair?
We hope they get all the pop aspects we dig and wanted to showcase through this record. We’ve always wanted to make music that’s simple & that anybody could love. We felt some restrictions with instrumental music, so we hope people who thought our music was too complicated will now join the boogie train.
Buy Cloud Drifter on vinyl here
Buy Cloud Drifter on cassette here
Buy Cloud Drifter on CD here
European Live Dates
11 sep CH Zürich Bogen F12 sep DE Kusel Kinett13 sep DE Munich Infinite Festival 14 sep AT Vienna Kaorle 16 sep DE Berlin Kantine Am Berghain18 sep DK Copenhagen Loppen
19 sep SE Plan B, Malmo 20 sep NO Oslo Blå24 sep NL Nijmegen Merleyn25 sep NL Amsterdam Skatecafe27 sep NL Utrecht EKKO
28 sep NL Tilburg Hall of Fame29 sep BE Brussels Botanique
30 sep BE Brugge Cactus Muziekcentrum1 okt LU Luxembourg De Gudde Wellen2 okt CH Bern ISC Club
