The first sounds of a distant train on Lasted give it perspective. The microphone that captured these distant trains, close to the listener, hears only what was rolling and sounding far off. And it feels like night. Benoit Pioulard, the nom de disque of Thomas Meluch, calls this opening track ‘Purse Discusses,’ a title that points to some hidden language-play at work. When the second track, ‘Together & Down,’ opens with tape acceleration that steadies, we’re moved in closer: to the position of the microphone itself, the recording device, the self of the composer, versus the seemingly untethered “other” of the outside, the place of trains, travel and movement.

Of course “found” sounds are still constructed. They are found by an individual, and that individual chooses to record them. This act of preservation is significant for all who use them — they form an unbalanced foundation that is molded and transformed into art. Meluch consistently illustrates that the studio, and its attendant equipment, is itself an instrument, a means of composition. Known for his use of field recordings and tape manipulation, Meluch places these recordings in the distance of Lasted‘s mix. In the foreground is his guitar and his voice, a voice he multiplies over layers of tracks into unisons and harmonies that create subtle phased effects of resonant power and beauty. In this changing depth-of-field, Meluch places varying amounts of reverb: his guitar may be largely dry, his voice as if in a small room, and some percussion as if heard from a great distance, across fields of space. He often sweeps the sounds furthest back left and right, but those things in the foreground tend to stay in a measured focus. Stable, secure.

The sequence of the album roughly alternates between compositions of manipulated field recordings, largely without rhythm, and Meluch’s deft lyrical songs. The timbre of his voice itself shapes the lyrics he sings, words about love and loss, feelings, a self at a center. But his center is always shifting, which is what makes Lasted an album that really bears its fruit after multiple listens. A song like ‘RTO,’ arguably that with the greatest pop tendencies, gains context and resonance when the haunting ‘Gloss’ is heard following it. Meluch has said in interviews his act of composition is solitary. One can listen to Lasted as the product of a man making sense of the outside from the inside, and using his materials carefully, not gratuitously. The songs that feel the most conventional — where vocals are doubled, tripled, harmonized into stacks of self-reflecting towers of sound — always have some filtered undertones sounding in the distance that destabilize them. It is not inconsequential that this is the very thing that enriches them.

Meluch writes vibrant, driving, catchy songs — no doubt they can be absolutely gripping. But he is not afraid to let the natural warp of perspective alter them. This is what makes Lasted rewarding. From the inside, he moves the train that passes outside. He moves it.