Écailles de lune

Écailles de lune (lit. 'Moon Scales') is the second studio album by French blackgaze band Alcest, released on March 26, 2010 by Prophecy Productions. It is the first Alcest album featuring Winterhalter on drums. Although it continues in the direction started with the first album Souvenirs d'un autre monde, Écailles de lune marks a darker, louder transition into shoegaze, while also coming back to the band's black metal origins as it features harsh vocals like those found on their second release Le Secret.

Alcest mastermind Neige said of the album's concept, "This story isn't really a metaphor of death, as it would seem to be. For me, it is about a man who decides to leave one world for another one, literally. Like a passage to another reality, another state of existence... This time I was especially inspired by the seaside, the energy and the exaltation you can feel when you sit in front of the sea at night. It appears terribly fascinating, full of secrets and scary at the same time." "Solar Song" is sung in glossolalia, and "Sur l'océan couleur de fer" is a musical version of the poem by Paul-Jean Toulet. "Abysses" was written and performed in its entirety by Fursy Teyssier of Les Discrets, who also created the album's artwork.

The band celebrated the album with a 10-year anniversary tour across Europe, which was originally planned for 2020 but ultimately took place in 2023 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.