Audiopile Review: Roméo Poirier’s debut album on Kit Records gets a welcome reissue, an album that set the template for his breakthrough on Sferic (2020’s Hotel Nota) and the wider release of his third LP, 2022’s Living Room, issued on Jan Jelinek’s Faitiche. As we had noted with Living Room upon its release, the linkup between Jelinek and Poirier is a perfect pairing, Jelinek likely hearing the influence of his own warm glitch in Poirier’s beguiling work. While Poirier’s approach would continue to be refined as he made upward steps upward more prominent labels, the hues of his palette can clearly be heard right at the start of his trajectory. With the Aegean Sea as his backdrop, Plage Arrière’s sample sets are run through the heat of the Greek summer, the micro-clipping Balearic loops feel melted and woozy, slow baked and fizzling out from a day in the sun. While the glitch sound of 20+ years back has seen a resurgence over the past few years, with loads of classic albums getting reissued and trace elements of it can now be heard in the oft-mentioned West Mineral/Motion Ward/post-Huerco S scene, very few have tackled it head on. Poirier has not only kept it alive, he’s smudged it with his own stylized imprint.

French lifeguard and sonic artist Roméo Poirier’s long sold out debut tape finally gets a vinyl reissue. Plage Arrière is a deep sea meditation on a constellation of Greek beaches across three islands. Trumpets, echo-clicks and Harold Budd-esque shimmer piano whirl together on these sand-caked missives, tumbled and re-engineered by their surroundings like seaglass. Plage evokes the sub-aqeaous ambitions of Jürgen Müller, or Jan Jelinek inspecting a coral reef.

The album has been remastered for vinyl by Sam Annand of Esk. Building on its original artwork, the vinyl edition features new photography by Roméo himself. Released alongside our friends SWIMS.