Rayol

Electronica / Downtempo / Lo-Fi / Trip-Hop / Chillout

July 2026 - Instrumental

Rayol is Ubaye's second album, and this time the destination is personal rather than distant: Rayol is the small coastal spot in the south of France where the artist spent childhood holidays. That biographical detail reframes the whole record — this isn't a trip somewhere new, it's a return, and it sounds like one from the first track. Porte ouverte opens quiet and unhurried, almost like stepping outside into warm, familiar air, and Au soleil keeps that same soft, sun-warmed glow going. Madeleine stays gentle too — fittingly, given its name is practically a byword for involuntary memory — so the album takes its time settling into nostalgia rather than announcing itself.

Then it starts to move. Rosé piscine brightens and picks up pace — the most obviously "poolside" moment on the record — and Calanques keeps that momentum with a steadier, more driving feel, like the record has properly stepped back outside into that childhood landscape. Canebière has a rougher, more textured energy, fitting for a song named after Marseille's most famous street, before Casablanca opens things up wide and expansive, the longest track on the album and one of its most spacious.

Jaguar is the clear high point — it's the loudest, most forceful track by a real margin, with a sense of speed and power that matches its name. After that peak, the album eases off: Cupidon is softer and more tender, Eau salée pulls right down into something warm, low, and atmospheric — true to its name, it feels like water. Maiale picks the energy back up a little, livelier and a touch brighter, and Vesper settles into a smooth, evening-cocktail kind of groove.

Onsen is the quietest, warmest moment on the whole record — fitting, given a hot spring is about as relaxed as a song title gets — and Plein sud stays in that same unhurried, sun-drenched register. Racine feels a little more grounded and rooted, which lands differently once you know the album is about a childhood place — roots in a very literal sense. Elle is warm and open. The album closes on Dernier métro — shorter, brighter, and a little more urgent than what came before, like the record is snapping back to adult, city life just as the memory of childhood summers ends.

Where Komorebi — the debut album — moved through one long day abroad with a single clear peak, Rayol feels looser and more like a season remembered than a single day lived — long stretches of ease (the Porte ouverte / Onsen / Plein sud end of things) interrupted by real bursts of energy (Rosé piscine, Jaguar), before winding back to the present at the very end with Dernier métro. As a second album, it reads as a deliberate contrast to the first: Komorebi was outward-looking and foreign, Rayol turns inward and homeward, trading discovery for memory.

Tracklisting:

1 - Porte ouverte

2 - Au soleil

3 - Madeleine

4 - Rosé piscine

5 - Calanques

6 - Canebière

7 - Casablanca

8 - Jaguar

9 - Cupidon

10 - Eau salée

11 - Maiale

12 - Vesper

13 - Onsen

14 - Plein sud

15 - Racine

16 - Elle

17 - Dernier métro

Album cover: based on a photograph of the “Les Degrés de la Mer” stairs in Rayol-Canadel-sur-Mer stylized in a cartoon manner.