Bolis Pupul – Letter to Yu
Deewee
Moms are sometimes the keepers of tradition. Because the individuals historically tasked with making ready meals, planning social engagements, and sustaining ties with household, they play an particularly pivotal position in preserving roots in immigrant households. Producer and musician Bolis Pupul was born in Belgium to a Chinese language mom and Belgian father. So when his mom, Yu Wei Wun, died in a automobile accident in 2008, he misplaced not solely a member of the family, but in addition a essential tie to his Chinese language heritage. In 2018, he visited Hong Kong to discover the place she was born and work on strengthening his ties to her homeland. Afterward, as a approach of processing the expertise, he wrote a letter that developed into the opener of his transferring new solo debut, Letter to Yu.
Pupul has grappled with id in some of his previous work—together with 2022’s Topical Dancer, a collaboration with Charlotte Adigery. Utilizing slinky beats and dance-ready hooks, that album performs a facade of casualness whereas truly satirizing respectability politics and the on a regular basis racism that each artists have skilled. His solo challenge is much less structural and eccentric. As a substitute, Pupul floats by a fog of grief and craving as he ponders answerless questions: Why did it take him so lengthy to come right here? What components of his mom stay within the metropolis of her delivery? Impressionistic pictures—garlic, mothballs, the colour of the ocean, the temple across the nook—are peppered all through. They supply a sense of place and grounding, nevertheless fleeting, as Pupul spins by heavy, amorphous ideas on belonging and loss.
Sonically, the challenge is extra experimental and expansive than Pupul’s earlier work, typically pulling again on his normal pristine electro-pop manufacturing to make room for Hong Kong discipline recordings and different individuals’s voices. This artistic alternative makes the challenge really feel relational: Pupul is on a quest to perceive himself by observing and absorbing the individuals round him. The synth blips on “Goodnight Mr Yi” twinkle and meander, typically sounding like two robots asking one another questions—the instrumentation supplies a light backdrop to the kids’s voices sampled on the monitor. Equally, “Cosmic Rendez-Vous” foregrounds an interview with Pupul’s mom over keys that flutter like snowfall.
Tracks like “Physician Says” do have grinding, propulsive beats, however they really feel much less like an invite to dance than the soundtrack of a thoughts burrowing inwards. One shining second of euphoria stands out: On “Fully Half,” Pupul thinks he sees his mom’s face in strangers passing by and regrets not talking the language higher. As he switches between feeling 100% and 50% Chinese language, and discovering a sense of self-acceptance someplace in between and past, the monitor builds to a heart-thumping crescendo. These songs by no means attain catharsis or decision to their grand queries, however nonetheless discover moments of pleasure within the course of of in search of solutions. GRADE: B
You may try Letter to Yu on Bandcamp and elsewhere.
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