Alcest

Alcest is a French band created by Neige in early 2000. He began writing songs on his own but a few months afterwards Argoth (bass) and Famine (lead guitar) joined him and his solo project became a real band. While Alcest started out playing raw black metal, after the release of the first demo "Tristesse Hivernale", the sound soon incorporated strong post-rock and shoegaze influences, changing direction and concept in order to explore more intimate themes.
The band's name doesn't have any meaning; Neige just chose it for its noble ethereal sound and couldn't imagine any other name in its pronunciation ("Al-sest", IPA: [al'sɛst]) to fit better with this music.