L'Encre du Passé #[nn]

From the Aire Libre imprint of Dupuis, this 2009 album by Mael and Bauza opens with a quietly haunting image: a lone figure slumped over scattered pages and an overturned inkwell, viewed from directly above, surrounded by a swirl of dark, smoky shadow that seems to rise from the earth itself. The title L'Encre du Passé — "The Ink of the Past" — feels perfectly embodied by that aerial perspective, as though memory itself is pressing down on the solitary writer. It's the kind of cover that stops you cold and makes you want to know everything about what came before.