Benoît Pioulard, real name Thomas Meluch, has always had a penchant for music that is anything but clear cut. His lo-fi, increasingly ambient, work borrows from the worlds of drone and shoegaze but is not clearly defined as being a part of either. In a sense its hazy, almost detached, tone lends it to a sound world beyond that we normally inhabit as listeners but the emotional weight added by the vocals mean that the aforementioned world beyond is one more belonging to the heart than the ears.
‘Hymnal’ is an interesting musical record for sure. The textural dynamics on display here are approaching the level needed to gain Meluch a seat the top table of modern day soundscaping, but what makes this a record to come back to isn’t its attention to the soul cleansing power of its sonic landscapes. Instead it is the meaning behind them and, in that sense, Benoît Pioulard should perhaps be seen as much as a singer-songwriter project as anything else.
His approach to the craft of his pieces belies this. There are moments of genuine clarity beneath the faded crackles and disembodied swells. The defined guitar work on ‘Excave’ and the piano on ‘Homily’ are musical touchstones, but perhaps more important is the distant bird noise on the instrumental ‘Gospel’ or the church bells on ‘Knell’. Sometimes words are overrated and, although there are plenty of them here, ‘Hymnal’ is more an exercise in proving that true feeling in music needs atmosphere more than it does the more obvious direction provided by transparent lyricism.
The aura of loss and solitude that pervades ‘Hymnal’ is, no doubt, highly personal but there is something about the approach taken on this record that makes it somehow universal. Its lack of signposting to emotional defaults will no doubt render it unappealing to many listeners, and it will almost certainly never reach the wider audience that it deserves, but a record that achieves its modest aims as pertinently as this one needs no arbitrary recognition. ‘Hymnal’ is a beautifully judged exposition, not just of sentiment, but also of process.
‘Hymnal’ is out now via Kranky.
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‘Hymnal’ is an interesting musical record for sure. The textural dynamics on display here are approaching the level needed to gain Meluch a seat the top table of modern day soundscaping, but what makes this a record to come back to isn’t its attention to the soul cleansing power of its sonic landscapes. Instead it is the meaning behind them and, in that sense, Benoît Pioulard should perhaps be seen as much as a singer-songwriter project as anything else.
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