French post-metal collective Year of No Light return with Les Maîtres Fous, a singular and evocative live album set for release on 23rd May via the esteemed Pelagic Records.

Haunting, discordant, and deeply unsettling, Les Maîtres Fous (“The Mad Masters”) was conceived in response to Jean Rouch’s controversial 1950s docufiction of the same name. Commissioned by Paris’s Musée du Quai Branly for its 2012 L’Invention du Sauvage exhibition, the piece draws inspiration from the ritual practices of the Hauka movement, as depicted in Rouch’s original film.

Performed only twice—first at the exhibition on 6th January 2012, and again in Bordeaux on 29th January 2015—the recording captures the second and final performance. Now available for the first time in a decade, this rare document offers a glimpse into the band’s intense and often overwhelming live presence.

While Year of No Light have long collaborated with visionary filmmakers and artists, the thematic weight of Les Maîtres Fous—both in terms of its subject matter and emotional magnitude—marks it as one of their most demanding undertakings to date. That raw intensity is etched into every moment of this performance.

Pre-order Les Maîtres Fous: https://orcd.co/y