Viul & Benoît Pioulard / Konec (ASIPV035)

Longtime friends and frequent collaborators Luke Entelis (Viul) and Thomas Meluch (Benoît Pioulard) combine their enchanting textures reflecting on a time spent in lockdown, for A Strangely Isolated Place. 

"Konec" is Czech for "end," and a nod to the uncertainty of Luke and Thomas’ home city of New York amidst the pandemic. Birthed from Luke’s short synth sketches, the two friends further collaborated in isolation to create a series of strangely beautiful interludes - a sense of vitality breaking through the immediate surrounding dread.

Whilst many of the tracks expand far beyond what a short interlude may dictate, Konec builds on this concept through some of the most thought-provoking loops the pair have created over their many combined years producing. 

With an immediate arresting aesthetic, grounded in saturation, decay, and distortion, tracks such as ‘Returning Clear Voice’ or ‘Flaxen’ reflect some of the duo’s more textured work - a hazy mist of life unknown in a city’s uncharted times. Konec’s storyful and engrossing moments come with a confident posture, such as the unforgettable bellowing of ‘Catalune’ or ‘Construction Worker Smoke Cycle’ or the swirling, haunting, ‘Canon’. 

The variation in minutia, samples and instrumentation throughout the album cannot be understated amongst its hazy aesthetic and ominous poignancy. It’s one thing to notice the details, but another to unstick the melodies from the closing credits of a dystopian city’s downfall, from the forefront of your mind. 

Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri and featuring original artwork by Liz Harris, Konec is available on limited gatefold transparent 2LP + digital. 

Preorder: August 15th 2022
Released: August 29th 2022

Tracklist:

A1. Tress
A2. Returning Clear Voice
A3. Stair

B1. A Real Place
B2. Construction Worker Smoke Cycle
B3. French Funeral

C1. Dearth Of Raveling
C2. Catalune
C3. Flaxen

D1. Canon
D2. Performance
D3. A Real Place [Coda]

All tracks written and produced by Luke Entelis and Thomas Meluch
Artwork by Liz Harris
Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at Black Knoll Studio, New York