Good morning, dear friends, and happy Saturday! For the month of August, I’ve been featuring Benoît Pioulard on Headphone Community. It promises to be another beautiful weekend here in London, so I plan on taking it easy, with some help from Tom. Today, we generously spoil you with another petite gem, released on Morr Music in November 2015. Tom has shared some Bandcamp codes which we’ve already given out over at Headphone Community. At only four tracks, Noyaux is a bit over 23 minutes in length, but its glorious, hazy, and warm rays of sound seem to wash over my heart on repeat all day. To be completely honest, I missed this EP when it came out, and so I’m experiencing it here with you, for the first time… together. This is another beautiful reminder that we don’t always have to chase new music. There’s plenty to discover, appreciate, and be thankful for today.
The title is French for “seeds” or “kernels”, the basis of life and growth. Meluch recorded the EP from February through April of this year after looking through a huge collection of family photos that his mother had scanned from old photo albums. “I began remembering a lot of things and events that I hadn’t thought about in 20 years,” he explains. After that he “was in a little daze for a few weeks.” During this nostalgic reflection, he came up with four tracks, each representing a member of his family – father, mother, brother and himself.
Meluch crafted them with the same basic rig of guitars, bass, loop pedal and a few effects he’s been using for years now. A couple of vocal elements are hidden deep in the mix, as well as old field recordings dating back to his childhood, like the cicadas on the title track or the last seconds of “Remind”, which stem from an old tape recorded at his brother’s birthday back in 1985. All these tangible memories beautifully dissolve within the glowing reverb and lively static of the four softly intertwining tracks. It’s the sound of melancholy that resonates with everyone of us. “Noyaux” zeroes in on this blissfully tender spot. By recollecting the irretrievable past, Benoît Pioulard makes us fall in love with eternity.
And what a beautiful and touching collection of vignettes, textures, and environs this is, which fill my room, my mind and soul with memories and sentimental grace. My only wish is that the two shorter pieces would go on a lot longer. Like zakè’s 20-minute loops! Oh well – at least there is a “repeat” button! Oh, and okay, the other wish is that I owned this on a limited edition yellow transparent vinyl.
