Hartlight have opened a Kickstarter campaign for Iosis, the album they announced earlier this week with no date and no label attached, and the reason they need the money is that the record is only half the thing they are making.
The other half is a novel. Both tell the same story, illustrated by William Aubert, and the band describe them as two paths into one world: a closed land under two moons, Albedo the White and Darga the Red, ruled from a Crystal City by something called the Cult, with corruption rising from below.
"IOSIS is more than an album," they wrote. "It's a fantasy universe built around a metal opera and an original novel, and we've got big plans for it." The campaign opened on 1 November.
Crowdfunding a metal opera is a reasonable bet in a way that crowdfunding a normal record is not. The costs here are a book, illustrations and a cast of singers, and none of that is paid for by streaming. Noémie Marie writes the lyrics and sings, Noa Gruman sings, Adrien Djouadou plays and produces most of the rest.
The first song, The Golden Egg, came out a few days ago.