Beyond the Ghost is a cinematic dark ambient project from the mind of France denizen, Pierre Laplace. Just before the autumnal winds began to blow in 2019, Pierre made his debut on the Cryo Chamber label with his album You Disappeared. It teems with melancholic piano movements, evocative, and at times, harsh, guitar timbres, and a snow-insulated aura that oscillates between isolating frigidity and a hopeful glow. This was an album Connor and I had a bunch to say about on a previous podcast episode and throughout and post-conversation its atmosphere continually stirred in me a genuine wonder about its creation.

Many years before Beyond the Ghost came to be, Pierre helmed the experimental rock outfit, Vera Clouzot, from 1994 to 2004. In 2010, he and his niece formed an atmospheric folk duo named The Sandman’s Orchestra, which continues to exist to this day. Over these years, Pierre ceaselessly etched, kneaded, and refined his skills in song-writing, all the while possessing a keen ear toward atmosphere and textures foreign so as to elicit dreamlike moods. Though after honing his craft for so long, he desired to fracture the song-writing mold and breach sonic territories wholly abstract. Thus Beyond the Ghost was born.

Plunging into the typically dreary abyss where dark ambient resides, Pierre found composing tracks in this medium to be quite liberating. It grants him the ability to strip his compositions of his singing voice and instead focus on the undiluted phantasmagoria of heart-wrenching moods that are often too complex to encapsulate in spoken language. You Disappeared exemplifies this in that it articulates the overwhelming feelings of losing someone close and it’s the primary focus of this interview. In addition to the in-depth discussion of this record, Pierre goes on to detail how he joined the ranks of Cryo Chamber, as well as noting a handful of musical influences that have left indelible impressions upon him throughout his perennially evolving musical endeavors. There is a good deal more we speak about, but I will leave his insights for you to discover. Thank you so much for tuning in.