Echoes from Forgotten Hearts: History and Key Facts

Echoes from Forgotten Hearts is the fifth extended play by Canadian-American ambient rock band Vision Eternel. The release was initially composed, arranged, and recorded by principal band member Alexander Julien between August–October 2014, as the score to a short film. When the writer-director-producer of the movie abandoned the project, Julien returned to Mortified Studios in Saint-Hippolyte-of-Kilkenny, Quebec, spending November–December 2014, to re-record, re-mix, and re-conceptualize the material into an extended play. The music is instrumental and blends elements from several genres and styles, including ambient, post-rock, shoegaze, drone, ethereal, post-black metal, experimental rock, and minimal.

The band tried unsuccessfully for years to secure a record deal to release Echoes from Forgotten Hearts on physical format. It was first released digitally by Abridged Pause Recordings on February 14, 2015, to tie in with the band's yearly Valentine's Day commemoration, but was only available via Bandcamp. On February 14, 2017, in celebration of Vision Eternel's tenth anniversary, Abridged Pause Recordings re-issued the extended play digitally to major music streaming and download services, and a music video was produced for the song "Pièce No. Trois," which premiered on August 28, 2017. A limited edition compact disc was eventually offered as part of Vision Eternel's An Anthology of Past Misfortunes box set, also released via Abridged Pause Recordings, on April 14, 2018.

On February 14, 2024, Geertruida issued an expanded, remastered, tenth anniversary deluxe edition with new artwork, as a double compact cassette box set and digitally. The box set edition includes an 80-page novella titled The Making of Echoes from Forgotten Hearts - A Narrative of Vision Eternel's Soundtrack, in which Julien details the making of the release, the difficulty he had getting it released, and the reasons for its delay, along with 70 images from the band archives. The cover artwork of the deluxe edition is a tribute to the theatrical poster of Charlie Chaplin's 1931 film City Lights.

Source and attribution

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