''Précis'' is the debut full-length album by
Portland, Oregon
Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...
based musician
Benoît Pioulard, released by
Kranky on October 16, 2006.
Background
Before the release of this album, Pioulard already had a fairly substantial discography. This included many self-released albums on
CD-R
CD-R (Compact disc-recordable) is a digital media, digital optical disc data storage device, storage format. A CD-R disc is a compact disc that can only be Write once read many, written once and read arbitrarily many times.
CD-R discs (CD-Rs) ...
and
cassette, as well as the 7-inch EP ''
Enge'', which was put out by Moodgadget in 2005. He later signed a deal with Chicago label
Kranky, from which this album was released.
Handmade version
An elaborate handmade version of this album was released through his
Myspace
Myspace (formerly stylized as MySpace, currently myspace; and sometimes my␣, with an elongated Whitespace character#Substitute images, open box symbol) is a social networking service based in the United States. Launched on August 1, 2003, it w ...
profile in September 2006.
Limited to only 25 copies, this edition had exclusive content not available on the standard release and due to high demand sold out rapidly.
Critical reception
''Précis'' was generally very well received by critics.
Stylus Magazine
''Stylus Magazine'' was an American online music and film magazine, launched in 2002 and co-founded by Todd L. Burns. It featured long-form music journalism, four daily music reviews, movie reviews, podcasts, an MP3 blog, and a text blog.
Addi ...
was one of the first publications to review the album, remarking:
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...
, who named Pioulard a "Hot Artist" in December 2006, were also impressed with the album, saying:
Track listing
# "La Guerre de Sept Ans" – 3:08
# "Together & Down" – 3:07
# "Ext. Leslie Park" – 2:42
# "Triggering Back" – 2:30
# "Moth Wings" – 1:16
# "Alan & Dawn" – 2:50
# "Corpus Chant" – 1:43
# "Palimend" – 3:04
# "Coup de Foudre" – 1:31
# "Hirondelle" – 2:22
# "Needle & Thread" – 2:42
# "R Coloring" – 0:39
# "Sous la Plage" – 2:59
# "Patter" – 2:58
# "Ash into the Sky" – 3:18
Music videos
On December 6, 2006, a video for Triggering Back was released. It was directed by Adam Hunt and was posted on both Pioulard's Myspace profile and his official website.
Themes in the video generally revolve around
photography
Photography is the visual arts, art, application, and practice of creating images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is empl ...
and
nature
Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...
. It shows Pioulard travelling around various locations and taking
Polaroid photographs of his surroundings, which then fall to the ground. Featuring a mixture of close-up shots and distant views, it is a hazy, almost dreamlike video that seems to fit with the style of the song and its ephemeric lyrical focus.
View the video in QuickTime format here
References
*
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Precis (Album)
Benoit Pioulard albums
Kranky (record label) albums
2006 albums