WuW

stream French post-rock duo WuW's "Une Barque Sans Rames"

WuW is the instrumental rock duo of Parisian musicians Benjamin and Guillaume Colin, who both played in the stoner rock band Abrahma, as well as in jazz ensembles and contemporary classical orchestras, and they’re releasing their debut album Rien ne nous sera épargné on March 30 via Prosthetic Records (pre-order). We’re premiering the new single “Une Barque Sans Rames,” which has bits of post-rock, sludge metal, synthy progressive rock, film scores, and more in its seven and a half minute running time. Here’s what the band tells us about it:

This is one of the first tracks we wrote, maybe the second one. Musically, it is some kind of “Theme and variations.” The title means “a rowboat without oars”; it came after the music so there is absolutely no narrative intention in the composition process. However, the story I tell to myself when I listen to it is about a small boat on the ocean. Everything is quiet but at some point, you can figure that something threatening is growing and coming slowly. Then, from one second to an other, you are in the storm and there is nothing you can do against that. It is also a metaphor of how our world is evolving. A storm is coming away but the oars have been confiscated, or worst, thrown in the water. We begin to understand that we have to change direction and try to avoid the clouds but the captain seems to have lost his mind and we only have our hands to oar. We still have to try.

You can definitely envision the song as a soundtrack for that story — listen for yourself, below.