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Feb 21, 2023 By Caleb Campbell Photography by Florian Renault

Quentin Sauvé is perhaps best known for his time playing bass for the French post hardcore outfit Birds in Row, but his solo material sees Sauvé going in a different direction, sidestepping his deep connections to heavy music. Instead, Sauvé evokes the indie folk of Bon Iver or Big Thief, layering his sincere and intimate vocals above pastoral acoustic arrangements. He made his solo debut in 2019 with his full-length record, Whatever It Takes, and this year he’s back with his follow-up, Enjoy the View, due out March 31st via Hummus Records.

He teased the record last year with a pair of new singles, “Horizon” and “Tunnel,” and today he’s back with a new single, “Reflections,” along with an accompanying video, premiering with Under the Radar.

“Reflections” is a more slight and spritely effort compared to Sauvé’s previous two efforts. Where he has previously shown off stirring instrumental arrangements and swelling percussive heights, “Reflections” is largely traced with only Sauvé’s guitar, his voice, and some subtle percussion. In the track’s latter half, Sauvé layers in some call-and-response vocal harmonies and ornate synth passages, ringing out above his web of finger-picked guitar lines.

The result feels very close to the clear-eyed beauty and emotive confessions of Sufjan Stevens, especially when paired with Sauvé’s lyrical reflections on the passage of time: “When 3 weeks ago feels like forever/A long way to go/One day after another/When 10 years ago feels like yesterday/A reflection in my window/Where my hair is gray. ”

“Almost all the first words of this new LP Enjoy The View came into my mind when I was on tour, in the van, looking at landscapes scrolling away through the window. I was very tired and sometimes tours seemed very very long. In the meantime I was feeling very nostalgic, thinking about my first tours with my old bands, and it felt like it was yesterday.

At some point my eyes stopped on a reflection of my face on the window and I saw that I had a lot of gray hair already, I felt old and thought « ok here I am… already fading away ». This song is about being lost in the past and losing passion. I tried to turn it into something hopeful in the video, showing very simple moments of the recording session, showing that I’m still passionate about composing, creating, like I always was, and like I hope I’ll always be.

This video was shot with an old analog camera (16mm film) by my friend Sofian Hamadaïne-Guest, during the recording of the album at Studio Black Box France, in May 2021”
Check out the song and video below. Enjoy the View is due out on March 31st via Hummus Records.