CIEL started life as the solo recordings of Michelle Hindriks in the small Dutch town of Leeuwarden, but it was only through her regular trips to Brighton UK that she found the right collaborators to really bring her vision to life. First meeting guitarist Jorge Bela, originally from Madrid, who had made a similar pilgrimage in search of musical soulmates, and then finding drummer and local Brightonian Tim Spencer, she found that everything came into focus. Fast forward two years (or less if you don’t count the lockdown era), and the band have had huge media support in the UK, with mainstream Radio 1 plays, repeated A-list playlisting on BBC 6Music, and have even played live at "The Hundred”, a huge outdoor cricket event which is a high point on the British sports calendar. And now the radio back home in the Netherlands has joined the party with the likes of Kink FM, 3FM and Radio Veronica adding to the overseas success of their homegrown talent.
Musically, CIEL shift gears comfortably between post punk rhythms, spooked-out synths, abrasive guitars and shoegaze noise, like the trio have distilled 30 years of alternative music into one cohesive whole - but what really set them apart from their contemporaries in the indie scene is their songs and melodies. The sensitive and soft vocals of Michelle Hindriks over the full force of an alternative rock band sets them miles apart from the current sprechsgesang which is heavily in vogue in alternative music right now, and their ability to channel classic songwriting with 'Baby Don’t You Know' shows the band have their sights set much higher than just pleasing the indie snobs.
'Not In The Sun, Nor In The Dark' is the sound of a band who have found their feet, growing from a teenage dream into a fully rounded band with a group identity and a clear sound of their own. Guided by producer Steven Ansell of Blood Red Shoes, the band push the opposite extremes of their sound - noisy, angular, punchy, aggressive, but with tender, heartfelt and dreamy vocals and make something of their own.
