Benoit Pioulard & Praveen Sharma's "Songs Spun Simla" on Music Related (home of excellent Shugo Tokumaru, Marxy, Aus, and ST releases) is a fantastic piece of electronic composition, where the tracks vary from organic, downbeat electronica to processed, Fennesz-like guitar-scapes. What really makes it stand out is Pioulard's gorgeous vocal harmonizing, which sends "Songs Spun Simla" straight to the very top of the electronica heap.
Back in 2006, singer-songwriter Thomas Meluch quietly released one of the year's most beguiling ambient pop records as Benoit Pioulard, the beautifully understated Precis. Now he's returned, alongside relative newcomer Praveen Sharma, as half of Praveen & Benoit, a cross-continental collaboration that picks up right where that debut ended. Here, however, Meluch's formidable songwriting talents take a bit of a backseat to his new partner's, as five of the six tracks use Sharma's travels and field recordings as a starting point. Built around Praveen's skeletal songs that were inspired by a trip to his family's native town of Shimla, India, the six tracks contained on this all-too-brief mini-album showcase two artists whose respective styles perfectly complement each other. Songs like "Embers" dwell on skittish drums and rich organ tones, forming a supple backdrop for layers of Meluch's delicately sleepy vocals. Similarly, "Death as a Man" places genteel acoustic guitars and plaintive keys against clattering bursts that add just enough tension to the track's laconic delivery. Over just as soon as it began, Praveen & Benoit's leaves quite an impression even in the midst of its hasty departure. [MC] (August 27, 2008)
LINER NOTES:
It's all in the wires. Praveen Sharma and Thomas Meluch (aka Benoît Pioulard) have met only a handful of times and have never resided in the same city, but over the course of two-plus years they have been quietly assembling Songs Spun Simla, a brief but luminescent collection of pieces driven by Praveen's inventive arrangements and Benoît's lush vocal harmonizing. Praveen released his remarkable debut Backed by Spirits on the now-defunct Neo Ouija imprint just as Benoît emerged with the Enge EP on Michigan's Moodgadget label in early 2005. Through mutual contacts they found that each was an admirer of the other's work, and the seeds for a casual collaboration were sown. Not long after, Praveen returned from a profound journey through his family's native India with a minidisk full of field recordings and voices, forming the basis of opener "The Tunnel is Still There". As he continued creating new songs with an ever-expanding palette of instruments and digital effects, Benoît arranged lyrics and harmonies, driven by the unfamiliarity and excitement of the process. Various ideas arose concerning the fate of these works, but once a record's worth had been amassed, their friends at Music Related expressed interest in a proper release. Songs Spun Simla is named in honor of the village in India from which Praveen's family originates – it's inseparable from his musical inspirations yet still distant and shaped largely by memory. His compostions exist on a fitting scale, then; from the stunning, expansive lead-in of "Death as a Man" to the incredibly detailed percussion of "To Scale", there's a sense of worldliness, history and nostalgia placed in a crucible with technology and innovation. Much like a travelogue, the six movements of Songs Spun Simla abut soaring highs with passages of quiet, intimate beauty to create a deeply affecting whole.