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Kodama (Japanese for "tree spirit" or "echo") is the fifth studio album by French rock band Alcest. It was released on September 30, 2016 via Prophecy Productions. It is a concept album about "the confrontation of the natural world and the human world", inspired by Hayao Miyazaki's film Princess Mononoke. Musically the album is a return to the band's earlier blackgaze style, due to Neige's feeling that he "needed to go for something more punchy, darker, and more personal too." Kodama is also the first Alcest album to feature Indria Saray performing on bass, though he has played with the band live since 2010.

The band will tour Europe with Japanese post-rock band Mono throughout late 2016 in support of Kodama, which will include nine UK dates. The first single from the album 'Oiseaux de proie' was premiered on August 4, 2016 along with an interview with Neige. The band premiered the second song from the album, "Je suis d'ailleurs", on August 30.

According to Winterhalter, "in the end it was a 3 year writing process, in addition to 3 months of recording and mixing", with Neige beginning writing almost immediately after returning from recording Shelter in Iceland. 'Untouched' was the first song written for this album, followed by the title track 'Kodama'. "These two songs (especially Kodama) kind of forged the sound of the whole album. Through them I could foresee the album's shape and identity and the further direction I wanted to take for the rest of the album."

Neige has said that the album is heavily influenced by Japanese culture and by Hayao Miyazaki's film Princess Mononoke. Neige was particularly inspired by the film's protagonist San, seeing something of himself in her. Drawing on the film, Kodama particularly centres around the conflict between the 'human' and 'natural' worlds. Talking about the album's Japanese influence, Neige said that it comes from his own love of Japanese culture, particularly the way in which "Japan has a hyper technologic society, always ahead of its time, full of crazy items, gadgets, etc, but yet people there are very attached to tradition, nature, and spirituality." He cited the band's two tours of Japan, in which they performed within Buddhist temples, as having a profound influence on the direction of this album.

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