After his adventure pairing up with Charlotte Adigéry, with the refreshing album Topical Dancer in 2022, which led them to a long tour across the world, Bolis Pupul has embarked on a personal journey with his first solo album Letter To Yu, a project born out of his desire to reconnect with the Chinese side of his background, from his mother who was born in Hong Kong. Born to a Belgian father, Bolis Pupul grew up in Ghent, and it was only after his mother’s sudden passing in 2008 that he decided to return to his roots, taking Chinese lessons and, ten years later, in 2018, visiting Hong Kong for the first time.
He went to Ma Tau Wai Road, the place mentioned on his mother’s birth certificate, and, upon listening to the city, he decided to write her a love letter. He recorded what he wanted to say to her on his phone and the letter would go on to become the basis for the album. “I needed that closeness, the feeling of proximity with my mom,” he explained to The Fader. “There was a weird kind of recognition when I entered Hong Kong for the first time, on a cellular level. There’s this kind of memory in our bodies that we pass on for generations.”
Upon returning to Ghent and the Deewee studio, the Dewaele brothers (Soulwax/2Many DJs) encouraged him to conceptualize the record around this letter and to record and write things during his second trip the following year. This is how Letter To Yu became a true Hong Kong album, with the city taking center stage throughout the entire record including musically, given the East Asian-influenced sounds that Bolis Pupul has infused into his mighty synthpop. This also came naturally to him, “with only the intent of grasping the moment. Apparently those melodies are inside me.”
The Dewaele brothers also imbued this intent into their clinical production, with very dry percussion, making for unstoppable tracks like the highly effective single “Completely Half,” featuring recordings from the Hong Kong metro, or the haunted mansion of electronic music that is “Spicy Crab.” It may not have been the original concept, but Letter To Yu is also a record that makes you want to dance, whether it’s to the wild techno of “Doctor Says,” or to “Frogs,” which could easily fit into any 2ManyDJs mix.
The album closes with the sunny “Cosmic Rendez-Vous,” the final testimony of this process of spiritual reconnection that Bolis Pupul set out on: “Although this trip was very moving and sad at times, I also had amazing experiences that made me very happy.”
