Media

Benoit Pioulard: Benoit Pioulard: "A Woolgatherer's Exodus" (Video)

5:06 p.m. · June 10, 2009 · by Jenna Humphrey

Tom Meluch, who goes by Benoit Pioulard, took the gentle aimlessness of the ambient mode and merged it with the emotional strength of folk in his 2008 album “Temper.” This video is of “A Woolgatherer’s Exodus,” and by woolgatherer, Meluch refers to a man who is “counting sheep” at 3 a.m. The song seems rather dreamlike, what with harpsichord, reverb, and subtle percussive flourishes of wood and string contributing to the lullaby. The animated interpretation makes this impression concrete: A cute bearded man goes out at night into a watery oblivion to play with fireflies until the ghostlike apparition of a Native American woman pulls him out. Tom Meluch likes to muse on decay -- an example of this is his interest in cassette decay. The way that the track fizzles into oblivion, like the friend who leaves without saying goodbye, notes at disintegration. Rinee Shah and Josh Lowman directed the video. [Fader]