NOAH - Noire (2022)

Nights can be ordinary, quiet. Most nights are. But, for some, nights also provide much needed alone time, space to relax and escape from the world. They can become the backdrop to grand stories made in one’s mind, imagined romances and introspective wanderings that make the time after dark the most magical.

It’s this sense of nocturnal freedom that weaves its way through Noah’s latest release, Noire. Noah’s work is characterised by her soft vocals and intricate, fantastic-exotic soundscapes. With Noire we’re invited to dig through the archives of some of her most personal tracks yet, and a process of creation that helped shape the artist herself.

This never-before-heard work from Noah is the sound of an artist finding themselves, a maturation. The minimalist tracks—a cocktail of late-night jazz meets Portishead—feature gorgeous space for Noah’s crooning vocals to breathe among sprinklings of sampled piano, flute and saxophone. From the emotive line, “The things I’ve left behind…” on ‘Shadow’, to the sleepy, far-off sounds of opener ‘Twirling’, the album showcases a lightness and a sensitivity to self: the joy of night twinned with the inevitable introspection that comes with staying up while the world sleeps.

Noah began work on Noire following the successful release of her debut album, Sivutie, toiling away on these nine tracks between 2015 and 2020—work from the past that has gone on to inform her current style, notably her 2021 Étoile EP. Though resonating more with her past self than her present, it’s only now that, fittingly, Noah has been able to put this night-born piece of art to bed.