Benoit Pioulard
Since a young age, Thomas Meluch has been fascinated by natural sounds and the textures of decay. He began playing piano before his feet could reach the pedals, and for more than a decade has sought to create a unique sonic environment by combining remnants of pop song structures with the lushness and unpredictability of field recordings.
Since a young age, Thomas Meluch has been fascinated by natural sounds and the textures of decay. He began playing piano before his feet could reach the pedals, and for more than a decade has sought to create a unique sonic environment by combining remnants of pop song structures with the lushness and unpredictability of field recordings.
Sunder
*300 hand-numbered copies limited edition* "Sunder is the first full-length collaboration between Brooklyn-based Thomas Meluch (aka Benoît Pioulard) and Denver-based Jason Corder (aka offthesky). After years of independent work amid a like-minded community of ambient experimentalists, the two were brought together by the collaboration-centric Laaps label, for whom Corder has previously worked with Craig Tattersall (aka The Humble Bee). Across Sunder's eight chapters, we hear careful construction…
Eidetic
American singer-songwriter, poet, and photographer Thomas Meluch, known musically as Benoît Pioulard, returns with his most structured and vocal release to date. Titled »Eidetic,« a word denoting the ability to recall mental images with extraordinarily rich precision, the album presents unprecedented clarity and vitality for Benoît Pioulard. To access its thematic ground, Meluch looked inward with an affinity towards the people he loves during a period marked by his move from Seattle to Brooklyn…
Communiqué
*300 copies limited edition. In process of stocking* A collaboration by Benoit Pioulard & Jogging House forged in mutual respect and the quiet of winter. Recorded in the US & Germany across the wires.
Music by Benoît Pioulard & Jogging HouseMastered by SALZ MasteringPhotography by Benoît Pioulard on Polaroid SX70 film in Calofornia, October 2021Design by Tom Tebby
Konec
*In process of stocking. Limited edition of 500 copies.* Longtime friends and frequent collaborators Luke Entelis (Viul) and Thomas Meluch (Benoît Pioulard) combine their enchanting textures reflecting on a time spent in lockdown, for A Strangely Isolated Place.
"Konec" is Czech for "end," and a nod to the uncertainty of Luke and Thomas’ home city of New York amidst the pandemic. Birthed from Luke’s short synth sketches, the two friends further collaborated in isolation to create a series of str…
Anon 2 (LP)
*300 copies * These tracks came to life in April 2020 after reading a poem by Charles Baudelaire called ‘Rêve Parisien’ (Parisian Dream) in his book of poetry ‘Les Fleurs du mal’ (Flowers of Evil). I was really focused on the theme of Dreams and this poem spoke to me when the world was experiencing a first global lockdown with these surreal big ghost cities. This side is therefore called ‘Rêve’." - From Overseas "These pieces were composed in July of 2020, just as it was becoming clear that lock…
Seize / Marre
**2021 stock** Backwards present two exclusive tracks from great American artist Benoît Pioulard. Seize & Marre were composed based on lyrics and recordings that Benoît Pioulard originally created at the age of 16, in the years 2000-2001. Another 16 years on, he has revisited those early efforts through the eyes & ears of his adult self, having spent that time sculpting a creative identity across five albums for Kranky and numerous collaborations with the likes of Rafael Anton Irisarri and Kyle …
I Suppose I'm Your Future
**200 copies on 180g black vinyl, silk-screened artwork** After having released several solo works of both artists, Dauw announce the first collaborative full album by The Humble Bee and Benoît Pioulard, I Suppose I'm Your Future.Both artists hold a very special place in the history of the label. The Humble Bee was already present from the very beginning and, in hindsight, definitely has put an important mark on the musical aesthetics we've been developing throughout the years. On the other hand…
Slow Spark, Soft Spoke
**200 copies on heavyweight clear vinyl, silk-screened artwork** Shortly after releasing his highly acclaimed The Benoît Pioulard Listening Matter (Kranky), Pioulard left on tour to Europe in order to promote the album. This tour took him to several distinctive places ranging from urban Brussels to rural France and the mystic capital city of Iceland, Reykjavik.Once returned to Seattle, these new impressions and memories formed the inspiration to make Slow Spark, Soft Spoke. Not surprisingly, the…
Sylva
**CD included** Kranky veteran Benoît Pioulard (né Thomas Meluch) has created his first full-length for Morr Music, complemented by a linen book of Polaroid SX70 photographs from more than two years of environmental explorations. The music on Sylva and its 84-page visual companion bear the beauty and strange shapes of nature: desert rock formations and colorful leaves, restless waters and peculiar plants. Meluch’s dreamy ambient drones and saturated lo-fi pop embody the impressionist sensation o…
The Benoit Pioulard Listening Matter
LP version. "The Benoît Pioulard Listening Matter is the sixth Kranky album from Thomas Meluch under the nom de plume Benoît Pioulard. It arrives on the 10th anniversary of his first LP, Précis, and offers a rekindled focus on self-examination, as well as a return to vocal-based pop structures following the mostly instrumental Sonnet (2015). Recording for the Listening Matter began during a period of grief, turmoil and self-medication, and continued throughout two years of growth and healin…
Noyaux
Seattle producer and songwriter Benoît Pioulard (aka Thomas Meluch) has been following his very own path through the calm scenery of ambient, shoegaze and electronica for over ten years now. Following the release of "Sonnet", his fifth LP for Portland’s Kranky label just a few months ago, Meluch returns to Morr Music with four shimmeringly beautiful Ambient tracks. Together with Rafael Anton Irisarri (aka The Sight Below) under the name ORCAS, he already contributed two albums filled with brilli…
Sonnet
The sound of the fifth Benoit Pioulard full length is lush and verdant, a temperate rain forest of ear ecstasy that reflects the environment surrounding the artist. A mostly instrumental work, it is an adept melding of song and sound, melody and texture, the intangible and the palpable, that in an abstract sense recalls the more fractured and loose end of the 70's krautrock movement."The basis of the album was a series of field recordings of tones and unintentional harmonies that I made in the s…
Hymnal
"Hymnal is the fourth kranky album by Thomas Meluch under his musical alias Benoit Pioulard, following Précis (2006), Temper (2008) and Lasted (2010). It was written and recorded throughout a year spent in southeastern England and on the European mainland, during which the ubiquity of religious iconography and grandiose cathedrals became an unexpected muse. Raised as a Catholic but never especially pious, Meluch drew on this aspect of social history as the basis for Hymnal's 12 chapters. H…
Lasted
Lasted is the third album by Thomas Meluch under the alias Benoit Pioulard. Thomas has toured throughout North America and Europe since his last record, the process of which has had a marked impact on the development of these songs as lyrics and structures have been scrapped, tweaked and reworked in the live setting. As with previous albums it was recorded and mixed in domestic isolation, this time throughout the rainy season in his current home of Portland, Oregon. While the extent of the…
Flocks
Two new long tracks on a 33rpm 7". Maginot features gorgeous vocals & acoustic guitar. Alaskan Lashes is a smear of found sounds & ambient tones. Housed in a heavy card sleeve, a mini lp style sleeve, complete with title on the spine. Pressed on very pretty, pale YELLOW vinyl. Limited to 500 copies!
Temper - Precis
The double LP vinyl version of Benoit Pioulard's new album Temper also includes the Precis album, issued on vinyl for the first time.