Noire is a collection of loose songs from Tokyo electronic R'nB artist Noah that have been tucked under her bed, laying pensive under a heap of laundry, or leaning anxiously against the back of her closet for years- waiting to be pulled out, polished, and given a purpose. These nine tracks owe their origins to various points in her recording career, starting with 2015's Sivutie, but truly acquiring their future, potential luster around the release of her Étoile EP back in 2021. Noah has a welcoming and warm quality to her voice, a cleanly defined human presence amongst the passages of electronically enhanced sounds that surround it. Her voice is like a thread around your finger, reminding you of something important from your past; running from your ring finger into the distant horizon, it is a lifeline by which you can pull yourself back to a previous promontory of clarity. The other notable aspect of the album's procession is her distant piano playing. While it is not a feature of every track, it does lend a distinct sense of hope to the wafting din of "shadow" and the expectant yearning of "cheshire," a searching sensibility that confesses its vulnerability through the bravery of its desire. There are many wonderous things one can find in the dark. Most surprisingly amongst them is one's self.
