Delerium return with this rather gorgeous set of ethereally-downbeat soundscapes that meld together what might seem to be bewilderingly disparate themes into a cohesively beautiful whole. For example, they seamlessly follow a song based on medieval Armenian hymns, the beautifully enveloping "Angelicus" featuring operatic soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian on lead vocal, with "Extollere," featuring Katherine Blake and the Mediæval Bæbes, where the words are from a Middle English poem "Love For A Beautiful Lady" about a poet beseaching the North Wind to blow his beloved home laid over a gently trippy breakbeat rhythm.
"Nuages Du Monde" is likely to also appeal to fans of Enya or the Cocteau Twins' Elizabeth Fraser as guest singers like Zoë Johnston (on "The Way You Want It To Be") or Kristy Thirsk (on "Self-Saboteur") bring to mind what one of those artists might sound like if they tried their hand at downtempo electronica. "Lumenis" has more of an Ambient vibe with Bayrakdarian again pulling together the delicately placed bongos amongst the glistening synths, while Indo-Canadian singer Kiran Ahluwalia takes the lead on "Indoctrination." Onetime Opus III frontwoman Kirsty Hawkshaw is showcased on "Fleeting Instant," a lovely piece layered with choral backgrounds that's amongst the more accessible tracks as is the sweetly grinding "Lost And Found" with Jael on lead vocal while a pair of elegantly paced instrumentals, "Tectonic Shift" and "Apparition" round the album out.
Given the large body of work that Bill Leeb and Rhys Fulber have built up under the Delerium name, it almost seems strange that the group was once considered little more than a Front Line Assembly footnote. But albums as strong as "Nuages Du Monde," prove that Leeb and Fulber should have a continued bright future ahead of them in this incarnation.
