Le Pantoum 46

Le Pantoum 46 was recorded during a show in Québec City. Le Pantoum is a long-standing DIY/artist-led space in-part run by friend of the band Jean-Michel Letendre Veilleux. The album harnesses that impossible to predict alchemical balance of every element falling into place–the audience, the space, and performance performance—coming together to make a truly special show.

On the heels of releasing Walking Field on Thrill Jockey, Peals (the duo of William Cashion and Bruce Willen) was touring across North America playing DIY venues in 2013 alongside the band Small Sur. Friend of the band and member of Small Sur at the time Andy Abelow started collaborating with Peals on this tour, imrpovising with them during their sets, playing on this live performance of "Blue Elvis" and going on to continue to collaborate with Peals on later records. In these DIY spaces, Peals' brand of quietude and patient, atmospheric sound boldly stood apart from the physicality and raucous sounds of bands typically playing those spaces.

Peals' Bruce Willen elaborates: "When playing in venues that would more typically host noisy rock bands, Peals took what I might describe as an 'aggressively quiet' approach, often starting our sets super minimally and at very low volume, to force a level of attentiveness from the audience. Even though this was something new, the Quebec City audience keyed in very quickly. (The world hadn’t totally fried our brains with social media yet!) And the room truly reshaped itself around the music we were making." 

As Peals' sound solidified, their live performances became seamless constructions. On this tour, the duo hit a new stride, elevating the entire performance into a well-crafted journey that flowed through inner landscapes and entirely new headspaces (including visually, in the dark).