Last year, influential French blackgaze duo Alcest released their sixth studio album Spiritual Instinct through Nuclear Blast. Warmly-received by press and fans alike, the album scored the band their highest chart position in several countries, including Germany (where the album reached number twelve) and Switzerland (number thirty).

Now, the band presents an alternate version of their deeply emotional track Sapphire, remixed by electro/synth wave legend James Kent aka Perturbator. The song was included alongside two other tracks on the bonus EP that was only available with deluxe versions of Spiritual Instinct, but is now being made available digitally for the first time.

You can hear the fruits of this stellar liaison below!

On the new single, founder Neige comments: “French artist James Kent from Perturbator is a master at playing with the darker side of eighties electronic music and we were really excited to hear how a rework of Sapphire by him would sound. Sapphire was already inspired by bands like The Cure so it was amazing to receive James’ version, who turned it into a stunning dark wave track.”

“It was an immense pleasure to work with Alcest on Sapphire. I think the track turned out to be a good blend of what we do best and is a nice homage to our love for post punk and cold wave.” -James Kent aka Perturbator.