Benoît Pioulard: Temper (Kranky CD/LP/digital): underthelens

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Benoît Pioulard: Temper (Kranky CD/LP/digital)

Oct 28, 2008 19:34

Benoît Pioulard (the alter-ego of Thomas Meluch) puts forth another release of pastoral, folk-tinged intimacy in the form of Temper, his second album for Kranky. Much like his previous effort Précis, many of the songs herein are quite brief, and the aesthetic tends to bounce between lyrical, dreamy free-folk and more ambient, sublime instrumentals and interludes. Because of the brevity of most of these tracks, Temper is best experienced as a whole rather than as isolated songs or interstitials - sort of the opposite of Max Richter's album I wrote about last week.

I'm of the opinion that despite the distinct inherent difference between the vocal and instrumental tracks, one style could not really exist here without the other; they serve as a healthy complement to one another. Meluch's voice is plain but sweet, working to carry those pieces in which he sings, tempering the more surreal production style (all hazy and dreamlike) with a straightforwardness that's unassuming, at times even a bit disarming. And while at their most basic, the vocal tracks are folk songs, there is enough hiding in the details to subvert any typical assumptions that go along with that tag. Little unexpected things like the accordion on "Idyll" or the thumb piano of "Cycle Disparaissant," the hammer dulcimer of "A Woolgathering Exodus" all serve to liven things up and keep you wondering what's coming next. And not every vocal track is straightforward either; 'Modèle d'Éclat" is a lovely miniature anthem carried by voice and drones, tinkery percussion and rattles skittering under the surface while "Hesperus" has an odd strut to it as the closing song.

One thing I've noticed with Temper is that, for me personally, it comes and goes like a dream - just as soon as I've been submerged in Meluch's strange little musical world, it's suddenly over, and I start it all over again. My lasting impression is vague, sort of like the hazy atmospheres that envelop many of these tracks, but it always has me coming back for more.

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free folk, kranky, benoit pioulard