Le Days - Are You Here?

​Le Days

Are You Here?
self-released; 2025

TOP ALBUM

By Matt Jensen
​

Everyone dies. It's simply part of the human condition. Most of us encounter profound grief at some point in our life. It is profound, sacred, and impossible to contain within neat definitions. To attempt to capture it in art is an act of courage, one that few can approach without veering into sentimentality or cliché. That’s why Are You Here? by Le Days caught my attention. The artist’s understanding of grief as nonlinear resonated deeply—grief doesn’t move in a straight line, and neither does this album.  

Composed of thirteen tracks, the album primarily leans on orchestral strings and piano. There are shades of Max Richter here, particularly in his works centered on sleep, where repetition and subtle shifts become the story. Emotionally, Are You Here? cycles through isolation, fear, and anxiety, each piece bleeding into the next in a way that makes them feel like fragments of a single, continuous composition.  

The recording itself is rich with detail. The strings carry a tactile quality, the piano breathes with dynamic shifts, and every note feels intentionally placed. The opener, "Life," emerges like the first flicker of existence—delicate yet undeniably alive. "Grief" and "Indifference" embody the weight of loss, their somber tones stretching moments of reflection into something vast and unshakable. Then there’s "Death," steeped in apprehension, its presence looming like an inevitability.  

Themes don’t really resolve; they return, mutating into new forms. The later compositions drift into unexpected musical territory, which only deepens its emotional complexity. I’ve always been drawn to dissonance—Penderecki, Schoenberg—and the track "Anxiety" taps into that same unsettling space. The strings lumber forward with an almost unbearable tension, the piano striking like a body being pulled in opposing directions.  

I wondered how the album would end, and its conclusion felt appropriate. The final track, "Relapse," resists the temptation of closure. There is no forced catharsis, no neat resolution—only the understanding that grief, like this album, circles back in ways we can’t always predict.  

Covering a subject as immense as grief without a single word is probably for the best. While art will always be an approximation of the real thing, it can help knowing that are universal experiences at play. Highly recommended.

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