Benoit Pioulard

Noyaux

BY Kyle CarneyPublished Nov 4, 2015

6
With the release of Sonnet earlier this year, Thomas Meluch eschewed his singer-songwriter mode and explored sun-washed drones in full album form. Noyaux continues in this vein, offering four, finely crafted ambient compositions.
 
There is something positively coastal about these songs; they seem to drift like waves captured at different times of day. The album title is a French word that describes the seeds in fruits, and Noyaux will certainly satisfy the palettes of ambient listeners, even if it lacks the lo-fi grittiness that set Sonnet apart. The title track captures the listener's attention in subversive ways, opening with a delicate loop that slowly unfurls into nine minutes of deconstructed analogue. The following three tracks operate by a similar routine, as ebbing loops break and recede with a sense of timelessness. These four songs are perfect specimens of ambient music but the EP as a whole fails to establish any defining traits, so while pleasant, it does little to distinguish itself from other releases in the genre.
(Morr)

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