Thomas Meluch is an American artist who performs under the alias Benoît Pioulard and is based in Brooklyn, NY. He combines found sounds, electronics, and bittersweet pop into dreamy songs and contemplative ambient works.
Since the early 2000s, he has been crafting his distinctive style of textured, analogue ambient music, with releases on labels such as Kranky, Morr Music, A Strangely Isolated Place (ASIP), Past Inside the Present (PITP) and his own imprint “Disques d’Honoré”. He has collaborated with Rafael Anton Irisarri (as Orcas), Viul, and The Humble Bee. Meluch is also a writer and photographer.
FACTS
1. Whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
2. No artifice can replicate authenticity.
3. A song can be anything you want it to be.
1. What is the biggest inspiration for your music?
The soul-sickness that occurs when I spend too much time away from it.
2. How and when did you get into making music?
I began piano lessons at the age of 5 because my mom’s best friend was a music teacher. Much of my youth was otherwise spent glued to early 90s MTV, and as soon as I figured out how to hijack a tape deck’s “record” function I wanted to make something that made me feel like “Would?” by Alice in Chains made me feel. I have yet to do that.
3. What are 5 of your favourite albums of all time?
Chiastic Slide, by Autechre
Computer World, by Kraftwerk
Juju, by Wayne Shorter
Phantom Brickworks, by Bibio
Church of the Ghetto PC, by o9
4. What do you associate with Berlin?
The summer in 2012 that I spent there with my friend Rafael, borrowing a flat in Prenzlauer Berg. I did a lot of walking and a lot of record shopping, but not much buying of records.
5. What’s your favourite place in your town?
The Prospect Park Ravine.
6. If there was no music in the world, what would you do instead?
I’d be more active with photography, for sure, but I’m trying to think of what part of my brain would have a skill translation into another practical field. Forest management, probably?
7. What was the last record/music you bought or listen?
I’m currently listening to “Heilun” by Hyldypi as I write.
8. Who would you most like to collaborate with?
I think it could be fun to spend a day or two tinkering in a studio with Alex G.
9. What was your best gig (as performer or spectator)?
There have been so many as a spectator, but the most recent life-changer was seeing Underworld with my wife, who is a very long-time fan. That show absolutely blew me away.
10. How important is technology to your creative process?
Tape machines are at the center of most things I make, so those are indispensable, but one of my favorite things is to sit with the acoustic guitar and slowly figure out a new song – which is much less tech-dependent. I haven’t done that in some months, but it’s still a unique joy.
11. Please tell us a bit more about your new album Stanza IV?
It’s the first full-length I’ve ever pressed independently of a label, not by any necessity but just because I wanted to do that at least once. Deep down I have a gently selfish auteur’s drive, and I love that this project is 100% DIY, like everything passed through my hands and has my literal fingerprints on it. The four pieces are meant in some way to represent my nuclear family, of whom two have died (my dad and my brother), and the spirit that persists in my adult self from that foundation.
Especially as instrumentals, they are some of the most complexly layered recordings I’ve made, but I hope they retain some light for the listener; in making them, I felt a pretty significant psychic weight lifted following a pretty rough stretch, emotionally. It’s also worth noting that this year marks the 20th anniversary of the Enge 7”, which was my very first Benoit release, and was self-funded by me and my friend Jakub. In that way, things have come full circle, I suppose !
