Kai, the driving force behind Esprit D’Air, is taking his own path through the world. The Sisters Of Mercy guitarist and his project are unique in deliberately rejecting all the logistical trappings of the music industry, working without PR representation, booking agents or record label backing. Their completely DIY-by-choice approach is absolutely working for them: both Metal Hammer and Trivium love what the British-Japanese multi-instrumentalist and his crew do, and the band’s genre blending sound has packed The Garage in North London with serious fans from across the spectrum of metal. Standing strong has never sounded quite so cool.
Esprit D'Air @ Garage
After the huge interplanetary synths of Nebulae, the punk riffs on Oceans Call scrunch like wire wool. Kai’s vocals are like a dark and jagged reinvention of Kate Bush’s iconic style, and every guitar line builds an enigmatic prog narrative. “We’ve done fifteen dates in the UK and Ireland, and this is the final one!” His speaking voice is shockingly normal after we’ve heard his operatic, multilingual vocals. Grudge hits hard like distorted, mystic slabs of noisy carved granite and Calling You becomes intensely theatrical with it’s laser guitar and arcade feel. Kai poses and emotes as if his life depends on it, gleefully bouncing above our field of waving hands, his anachronistic ponytail flying behind him. “Let’s do something heavy!” The frontman calls joyously as The Abyss hits. His harsh roar drags us into a fantasy labyrinth, thorny and distorted as Esprit D’Air seamlessly transition into Rebirth, equal parts sludgy and thundering but also immensely uplifting. Tsunami becomes an echoing and complex power metal moment. They make music for what rises after the dystopia falls, embracing hope, grit and electronica.
The show pauses for a second and the houselights go up, dropping us back into reality. Kai grins and basks in our applause for a moment, “We are a very independent band, we built these shows ourselves because we want to, because we fucking love to,” he asserts, feeling our admiration. This is one of the very few breaks in a very efficient and clearly curated show. There’s no room for meaningless banter when, instead, they could be throwing Amethyst’s epic classic rock guitar solos, until they’re washed away by piano raindrops and mournful distortion. Kai mostly sings in Japanese, but the fact we don’t understand his lyrics only adds to the immersion in the world Esprit D’Air create through their music. Shizuku, their oldest song, rings fast and desperate with dangerously speeding drums as a choral singalong opens a rough pit. By the time Guiding Light begins, heads are nodding all the way back to the bar as we enjoy classic metal with bittersweet piano samples, watching as Kai vocally surfs the highs and lows of notes and emotion.
While Esprit D’Air seemingly build their own reality onstage, their moments of humanity are perhaps the sweetest in the show. Ben Christo from support band Diamond Black joins them onstage for Dead Zone, taking a moment to credit Esprit D’Air for his continuing sobriety. He hugs Kai forcefully before they begin an emotional duet, a ballad of defiance which punches above its weight in terms of riff-packed goodness. While Christo sings, Kai frantically motions behind him for more cheers for his friend. Both frontmen are genuinely overcome with the roar they receive at the end of their song as if surprised that we’re enjoying ourselves. It should have been obvious that, for many of the crowd, this is their show of 2024. The venue practically explodes as Leviathan drops, the synths spiralling and expanding into fractals of strength and power. We’re completely unaware of time passing, the set is that tightly focused. It feels like they’ve barely begun when Kai hops offstage with a wave and a casual quip of “it’s time to write a new album! See you next year!” We leave the Garage absolutely sure that their next plans will be intricate, powerful, resist any pigeonholing, and, above all, be entirely independent.
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Esprit D'Air @ Garage (Louise Phillips)
Review of Esprit D’Air live at The Garage, London on 2nd March 2024. Words by Kate Allvey, photos by Louise Phillips.
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