Pias news – Grégoire Gerstmans shares new single ‘ceux qui restent’

GRÉGOIRE GERSTMANS SHARES NEW SINGLE "CEUX QUI RESTENT"
Grégoire Gerstmans - Ceux qui restent
NEW ALBUM "ÉTERNITÉ" OUT ON OCTOBER 9, 2026, VIA [PIAS] RECORDINGS

03/04 – BRDCST, BRUSSELS
04/04 – BRDCST, BRUSSELS
05/04 – BRDCST, BRUSSELS
12/04 – PBA, CHARLEROI
12/04 – FESTIVAL PIANO (FT. CALI), QUAREGNON
15/05 – CENTRE CULTUREL, HANNUT
29/05 – CASERNE FONCK, LIÈGE
08/10 – MUSÉE DE LA PHOTO, CHARLEROI (ALBUM RELEASE SHOW)

Belgian pianist and composer Grégoire Gerstmans has, for several years now, been developing an intimate and minimalist musical language centered around piano and silence. Following his debut album Hypnagogie (2024), he today releases Ceux qui restent — the first single from his second album Éternité, set for release on October 9, 2026 — as he'll be performing three times (!) at BRDCST on April 3, 4, and 5, 2026.

While on Hypnagogie, Grégoire Gerstmans paid tribute to the state between wakefulness and sleep — that fragile moment where reality and dreams intertwine — he explores time and presence on Éternité. Composed of eight minimalist pieces, the album invites listeners to slow down, inhabit each moment, and listen to silence. The first highlighted track, Ceux qui restent, pays tribute to those who remain when someone disappears — a gesture of care and presence.

The order of the tracks follows an almost symbolic temporality on this new album. This fifth piece represents a central moment in the record:
"Ceux qui restent is a tribute to a very dear friend who recently passed away. My wife and I were invited to his bedside — a moment suspended in time. We shared his most precious memories, and he took the time to offer us a rare gift: the strength of the present moment. Every small detail of life he left us — a vegetable in the sunlight, a passing fly, a scent, a country, a drop of rain — becomes a treasure. These simple moments, what remains of him, I dedicate to all those who continue their journey after the loss of a loved one.
The piece reminds us that every moment of life is a precious gift. I played it on my small piano at home, with a sound I chose and love. Through it, I share what I received: that fragile and infinite intensity that life offers us.
To you, my friend, and to you, the love of my life, I dedicate these notes and silences, these suspended moments. May Ceux qui restent be a bridge between memory and present, a breath of emotion that travels through time. May those who remain find in this piece tenderness, strength, and the beauty of small moments. It is not just a melody, but a gift from the heart, received and passed on. It is the echo of what we have lived together and what continues to live within us. Every moment, every breath, every detail carries the trace of those we love. And in this way, despite absence, those who remain carry forever what has been given."

Recorded once again in his studio, the album continues Grégoire Gerstmans' artistic approach: a refined, stripped-down music in which every note matters and where silence becomes an essential element of the musical language.
"Time that passes, time that flows through us, time we believe we possess but which constantly escapes us. I like to think that time itself is eternal. The share we give to it is simply human. Today, time has become something dark. We measure it, we consume it, we buy it. We get paid for time. It has become our primary currency. And yet, we no longer have any. We no longer have time for ourselves, for our loved ones, for our families. No more time to look up at the sky. No more time to breathe. No more time to simply be. To be here, now. In the present. Because perhaps eternity lies precisely there: in that moment. Time is eternity. Let us take it."

Between Hypnagogie and Éternité, his work continues the same quest: to explore those suspended moments of existence when time seems to slow down — when we fall asleep, or when we finally take the time to be present.