southern records

Temper is the second album by Thomas Meluch under his Benoit Pioulard nom de guerre. Composed throughout a year that involved graduation from university and a cross-continental relocation, its 16 tracks arose in specific periods of intense creative energy.

Pioulard shows how his sound has progressed since his previous album with the scope and sonic narratives of songs like A Woolgathering Exodus and Golden Grin exhibiting new degrees of musicality, while the weightlessness of Brown Bess or Sweep Generator reflects the unrestrained context in which the record was produced. It is no coincidence that the word "temper" has more than 20 definitions relating to basic existential aspects like emotion, behaviour and music; it offers many dimensions but also reveals how scrawny language can be in its attempt to name the abstract. On Temper, Pioulard endeavors to make sense of things in a tumultuous time, inspired by everything from medieval astrology to the poems of T.S. Eliot and the films of the Italian neo-realists. Fully aware of his mission's vanity, Meluch is nevertheless consumed by its path.