There is this extraordinary scene towards the end of Darren Aronofsky’s masterpiece “Pi” where the main character Maximillian, driven to the brink of madness by repeating headaches and his obsession with a mysterious 216-digit number, looks at his reflection in a broken mirror. As the camera comes closer, the voice-over goes: “When I was a little kid, my mother told me not to stare into the sun”, and after a brief pause: “So once, when I was six, I did”. He then pushes a drill into his right temple where he thinks his mathematical genius is located. Despite the crude description, this scene is everything but gratuitous goriness, and more about an incredible build-up of tension, that had slowly been unfolding throughout the film. When I first heard ‘Pole’, the opening track on ‘Delayed Summer’ by French collective Saaad, I was immediately brought back to those feelings of uneasiness and paranoid fears that I had when I saw ‘Pi’ many years ago. It might be the dissonant drone that keeps building up like a dry thunderstorm with gusty winds expanding outwards, or what sounds like buried cries trying to pierce through a furious onslaught of roaring guitars, I don’t know, but towards the end, it feels exactly like watching this incredible scene. The unbearable series tension, pain, unresolved memories and childhood, everything comes back, condensed into 3 minutes. It’s aching and haunting but ends in a musical triumph nonetheless. It’s already too much and that’s only the beginning. Proceeding through ‘Delayed Summer’ feels more like finding out how things turned out the way they did in ‘Pole’. It’s like exploring the story backward and unveiling minute details of a drama that slowly unfolds in reverse. In ‘I Can Feel You’ for instance, the buried cries heard before come back, this time more clearly, and seem to call through a dense and hazy fog of disjointed memories, somehow hinting at Burial’s dystopian track ‘Endorphin’. Despite the wounds, things are kept below the surface, and for this reason are just about bearable. In ‘You Showed Me The Way’, things take a new twist and turned onto the opiate dream, as a way to alleviate the growing pain. Each track adds a new layer to this enigmatic story but somehow opens new horizons. And this is possibly the major strength of ‘Delayed Summer’: the extraordinary narrative skills displayed by Saaad throughout the record. Certainly qualities that founding member Romain Barbot showed on his 2010 debut album ‘It Was LP’ but in a more subdued manner back then. Having expanded his Saaad project considerably and now working in a more collaborative way, Barbot’s narration is less neurotic and able to reach out to the listener in a more visceral way. Take ‘Missing Parts’ for example, very little is happening: a pulsing bass, some saturated guitars in the backgrounds and not much else really. But what a strong sense of place, of mental distress, of helplessness and above all of profound humanity, something you can grasp immediately and appropriate as your own story, your own narrative. Things are said in their own oblique and diminutive way but somehow you feel you’ve been spoken to and that’s enough. You know what you need to know to be able to move on. Final track ‘Back Pain/Pain Back’ epitomises everything that has been said so far, but capitalises on the raw surface of saturated guitars. The tension of opening track ‘Pole’ slowly builds up and comes to the fore in a subtle and articulated way. But here your still left with a choice, and that’s a major difference. If ‘Pole’ pushed you over the edge with no way to come back, here you’re still in a liminal state. Probably the best ending possible after such a strong opener: tension doesn’t resolve and you’re left with even more questions than when it all started – painful but necessary questions. On repeat… – Pascal Savy for FLUID RADIO

Rares sont ceux qui se sont aventurés dans les tréfonds de la Drone Music et pourtant, Saåad, jeune duo toulousain composé de Greg Buffier ( Selenites) et de Romain Barbot (I Pilot Daemon), a tenté l’expérience. Delayed Summer, leur nouvel EP, nous entraîne très facilement dans un univers à part. Tout n’est qu’une immense vague de son, nous submergeant dès les premiers instants et ce, pour plus d’une demie heure. Le résultat est tellement prenant que la notion de temps qui passe en devient inexistante. Une production immersive qui rendra le retour à la réalité plutôt pénible. – NOW PLAYING MAG

Il était une fois une princesse…non un ogre…non plus…une envie…oui, une envie, celle de revivre des moments, des atmosphères et des odeurs autrefois ressentis. C’est cette quête du Graal qui a animé Romain Barbot (I Pilot Daemon) qui est derrière le projet Saåad avec son dernier album, Delayed summer. Enregistrée en totale improvisation avec quelques amis dans la maison de son enfance, cette réminiscence sonore nous projette dans nos plus intimes retranchements…dans nos mémoires et souvenirs d’antan avec cette pointe de tendresse mais point de tristesse qui nous dirait: C’était bien chouette avant! – REAKTIV ZONE

Saåad is a growing drone, experimental and ambient music project based in Toulouse, France, created by Romain Barbot. After releasing six individual works on various independed record labels, Romain has involved Greg Buffier into working and expanding sound trajectories together. “Delayed Summer” is an independently released album which consists of six sublime compositions. Improvisations were recorded in the middle of summer at Toulouse by participating guest musicians Tony Llados & Jean-Henry Lapart. It is a subtle lo-fi ambient, drone production where psychedelic, noise or even post-rock style fragments can be heard. The basis stands on the extensive atmospheres with mesmerizing reverb effect and viscous electric guitar chords which have potential to hypnotize. Looped instruments’ parts are accurately fused with the whole sparkling ambience. Harmonious compositions are developing scrupulous thus gently obtaining the feeling of airiness. The listening satisfaction is created by perfectly balanced sound level between instruments. “Delayed Summer” is magnificent release which is full of alchemy, strange moonlight and waving mysteries in the air. – S13

The mysteriously and somewhat ominously named Delayed Summer is the newest offering from Toulouse’s Roman Barbot. His dark and massive, loud post-rock influenced music can be best by the “term” invented by my friend: sunless ambient. A reverbed and distorted wall of sounds, relentlessly pulsing their way into the night; this is no beach party music. Perfect soundtrack for the long, dark winter nights. – WEED TEMPLE

Saåad, oui. Saåad… L’été est décalé, et les arbres gèlent. Comme vous, lorsque vous écoutez ce duo toulousain. Quelques réminiscences shoegaze mixée à l’éléctro – dans le style de M83, sans le côté lent et bobo. Quelques rêves délavés et usagés. Quelques souvenirs oubliés, refoulés… Un choc violent, inattendu. D’un coup. Et un réveil, à moitié dans le monde réel, à moitié dans les vapes. Une sortie de coma. Un tunnel blanc dont on peut se délecter sans rien risquer. Totalement abstrait et lointain, pourtant si près de ce que nous sommes, tous, au fond. Une lumière, une étincelle, celle d’une génération éteinte, mais qui stock les souvenirs. Oubliés. Refoulés. Delayed Summer tape très haut avec un post-post-rock céleste. La puissance universelle, la lenteur et le silence de la Nature passés en accéléré. Après tout peut-être que la vie est la plus belle musique. - AMBIENT CHURCHES