Benoit Pioulard Announces New Album, Shares “So Etched In Memory”

Thomas Meluch's music as Benoit Pioulard has long occupied two distinct sonic spaces: soft-focus indie-pop and quiet, dusky ambient reverie. For the project's fifth album, Sonnet, Meluch went full-on ambient, and "So Etched In Memory" is a taste of what's to come on that album, which sees release on March 30 via Kranky.

"This particular piece was recorded on my Standard SR-300 reel to reel with the built in microphone," Meluch told FADER in an email. "The guitar loop was something I built up slowly over the course of making breakfast one morning last year, adding a new note every few minutes in between crushing garlic and chopping potatoes.. The loop ran through my amplifier for a half hour or so, until it felt 'full', at which point I started the tape rolling. At the end of the piece you can hear the loop fade, the creak & crack of my wooden floor, and the return of radio interference coming through the amp. It was a perfect sonic complement to the low morning sun and the purring cat on the chair next to me."

Lead photo: Nico Cox