Maud Anyways — Echoes of Encounters
Released October 24, 2025 – France
Genre: Pop / Indie / Shoegaze
With Echoes of Encounters, French artist Maud Anyways returns with a luminous and emotionally rich record that blurs the lines between pop clarity and shoegaze introspection. What began in 2021 as the intimate solo project of Maud Platiau-Bourret — born from quiet experimentation and self-recorded sketches — has evolved into one of the most intriguing voices in the European indie landscape.
Following her acclaimed debut Impermanent Lane, Maud expands her sonic palette with Echoes of Encounters, crafting songs that shimmer with vulnerability and quiet confidence. Each track feels like a small confession floating in a vast reverb-drenched atmosphere — intimate yet expansive, fragile yet resolute.
A personal and cinematic sound
Maud’s music has always thrived on contrast: soft melodies wrapped in layers of distortion, crystalline vocals carried by a haze of guitars, and lyrics that balance emotional realism with poetic abstraction. On Echoes of Encounters, those contrasts bloom fully. The production is lush but never heavy-handed; you can hear every breath, every tremor of feeling, every flicker of movement beneath the surface.
The album’s title captures its essence perfectly — each song is an “echo,” a reflection of a fleeting moment, a meeting that leaves a trace. Maud translates small human experiences — the glance of a stranger, a late-night walk, the warmth of memory — into sonic form. The result is a collection of songs that seem to drift between worlds: one foot in shimmering dream pop, the other in grounded, heartfelt storytelling.
Emotional resonance and artistic growth
While Impermanent Lane hinted at the potential of her songwriting, Echoes of Encounters feels like the moment Maud fully arrives. Her lyrics are more nuanced, her vocal delivery more assured — soft, melancholic, but full of quiet strength. There’s a timelessness to her phrasing, reminiscent of artists like Alvvays, Beach House, and Melody’s Echo Chamber, yet her perspective remains distinctly French — introspective, romantic, and subtly cinematic.
The production envelops listeners in layers of warmth and light: shimmering guitars, deep bass pulses, gentle percussion, and occasional bursts of synth that expand the emotional scope. It’s music that invites you to close your eyes and drift — not to escape reality, but to see it more clearly through sound.
Between solitude and connection
At its heart, Echoes of Encounters is about connection — how we reach for others, and how those brief exchanges shape us. It’s a record about the beauty of impermanence, about accepting that not all encounters are meant to last but that each leaves its mark nonetheless.
There’s a quiet universality in Maud’s writing. Even when she sings in deeply personal tones, her words feel open, generous — like diary pages left ajar for anyone who’s ever felt the pull of nostalgia or the ache of something unfinished.
A new chapter for French indie
With Echoes of Encounters, Maud Anyways cements her place among the most exciting new voices in French indie pop. Her blend of dreamlike textures and emotional directness gives her music a timeless glow — one that transcends genre and language.
This album feels like a walk through fog at sunrise — familiar streets transformed by light and memory, where every sound lingers a little longer than it should.
Delicate, introspective, and beautifully immersive, “Echoes of Encounters” is a testament to the power of vulnerability — a dream-pop reverie that turns fleeting moments into lasting echoes.
© Thusblog
