With The Whole Story, their 2024 debut album, Astral Bakers laid the foundation for a quiet soft grunge, somewhere between hazy folk and weightless rock.
"Vertical Life" marks a turning point: a band that, after finding itself, has now established itself as a cohesive collective, in which each member shapes their sonic identity with equal vigor. Recorded in the USA with Sam Evian (Big Thief, Blonde Redhead, etc.), the album captures the freedom and raw energy of the quartet. There's no over-recording or over-production here: the moment takes precedence, mistakes become texture, and slight imperfections become a signature.
"Vertical Life" is a choral album, a constant dialogue between the four musicians—Ambroise, Theodora, Nico, and Zoé—where each finds a more confident place in this shifting puzzle, where voices intersect and roles swap. Textured guitars, sometimes silky, sometimes harsh, intersect and overlap like delicate strands of fuzz. Theodora's bass anchors the tracks in a cinematic inertia, while Zoé's supple, understated drumming creates a nocturnal, almost hazy groove. The vocals, both fragile and assertive, constantly oscillate between whispering and singing, between indie introspection and grunge energy. A record where verticality isn't just an upward movement, but a vertigo, a tension between rootedness and flight.
