Bolis Pupul Walks Us Through His Debut Solo Album Track By Track

Today, Belgian/Chinese producer Bolis Pupul has released his debut solo album, Letter To Yu. The record is a love letter to Bolis’ mother Yu Wei Wun, who passed away in 2008 in a traffic accident and, inspired by a visit to Hong Kong in 2018 to find her birthplace, incorporates his Chinese legacy into his music. A letter Bolis wrote to his late mother, which detailed his trip to China, served as a catalyst for the rest of Letter To Yu to come to life.

“Everyday I wrote something, sometimes it was a melody, the next day it could be a rhythm, I walked around with a field recorder, recording everything around me,” Boris says. “I wrote a letter to my mother when I visited the street where she was born.”

“It was a very busy street with a lot of buses and cars passing by the whole time. A lot of loud noises sounded muted to me,” he continues. “Partly because I was so moved to finally be there but also partly because Hong Kong sounds muted because of all the tall buildings. When I crossed the pagoda in the street, I was so overwhelmed by the scent of incense that it really hit me. The chanting of the monks and the smell made me break into pieces. I missed her so hard but strongly felt her presence in that moment.”

Letter To Yu is a striking assembly of memory and future, as Bolis experiments with shimmering electronica and, in one track, even sings in Cantonese—further exploring his own Chinese lineage. The work is a grand and curious measure of synth-pop, and the 11 songs are entrenched in gratitude, lost conversations, vibrant recollections and, above all, a beautiful, familiar balance between regret, hope and familial love. Below, Bolis walks us through the inspirations and backstories of Letter To Yu.

Letter to Yu

I was never aware of the importance of my roots
Until you passed away
My heart is in my throat
My eyes filled with tears
This is where you were born
59 years ago
And I’m finally here
Why did it take me so long?
La Yu as we liked to call you
Looking for the essence
But also searching for your roots
Your ancestors
The things you once left behind
I feel so lost
Being here on the corner of Ma Tau Wai Road
Without you looking for my roots
My connections
I feel so sorry we couldn’t do this together
Enjoying this moment
My thoughts are with you
Walking down this road

Completely Half

Built around field recordings I made in the subway, you can hear people scanning their Octopus cards when entering or leaving the MTR station.

This song is about the feeling that no matter where, I’ll always feel like some kind of an outsider. It’s also a naïve and hopeful song where I think I will find something that will make me feel more at home. Looking for my mother, hoping to find parts of her, of her parents and at the same time hoping people would see me as one of them.

Sometimes I see people who remind me of her and for an instant I believe it’s her, although it’s a sad feeling I also see some beauty in it, as if we are all connected to each other.

Goodnight Mr Yi

When I was working on the music of this track my sister sent me a video of a tribe called the “Dong” (as we once had a band called Hong Kong Dong this wasn’t a complete coincidence). The Dong are a minority group living in China passing on songs from generation to generation for more than 2500 years.

When I opened her video, my own music was still playing in my studio and when I accidentally heard those chants together with my track it sounded like music to my ears. Although I still don’t know what they are singing about I decided to keep these endearing voices. To me the music sounded like a lullaby for grown ups, hence the title of this track.

Frogs

When I was in Hong Kong I spent a lot of time walking around keeping my ears open for interesting textures or sounds that appealed to me. One of those sounds was the sound of
croaking frogs.

When I was a child we had a very small courtyard where we had frogs. My sister and I spent hours feeding them with worms and spiders on a bamboo stick, so much that after a while the frogs attached to the bamboo stick even if there weren’t any insects on it.

In this song I tried to put some sounds that refer to the sound of croaking frogs, but more importantly I would like to make people dance to these crazy frog sounds.

Doctor Says

During my first visit to Hong Kong I made a short trip just across the border to Shenzhen. I had some pain in my back and bumped into a doctor who said he could help me.

I recorded his comments about the treatment and what I needed to do in order to stay healthy which resulted into this song.

Spicy Crab

An ode to the spiciest crab I ever ate, a signature Hong Kong dish.

Ma Tau Wai Road ft. Salah Pupul

On this track you can hear my sister, Salah Pupul on vocals.

It’s a song I wrote while I was staying in a hotel room in the street where my mother was born. I found the address on her birth certificate and when I arrived there it seemed the maternity clinic had shifted into an elderly home.

I wrote about what I was feeling there, at that moment.

Addressing gratitude for being the mother she had been for us, preparing us for life. It also reflects on the observation of a city that is so big and different from where we grew up but at the same time felt familiar. I originally sang the lead vocal myself but it felt like it needed a lighter voice. It couldn’t have been anyone else but my sister for this song.

Causeway Bae

Even though this trip was very emotional and at times sad I also had some great times that just made me really happy, this resulted in a very uplifting melody where I felt like I could handle my life.

When I was in Hong Kong I recognized some smells from my past, every time I smelled one I wrote one down. The most important smells to me were mothballs, bleach, tiger balm and garlic. You can hear how they sound in Cantonese in this song.

Cantonese

I’m frustrated that I can’t speak proper Mandarin but I’m also very proud I can speak a little. Being in Hong Kong mandarin didn’t help me much as it is not popular to speak it.

In this song I’m addressing my inability of Cantonese (in Cantonese), adding that my Mandarin isn’t that good either.

Kowloon

My mother was born in Kowloon so I spent most of my time there.

This dance track is inspired by this part of Hong Kong and it contains a recording of a mother with her child, who didn’t want to listen to her. They were having a situation on the street.

Cosmic Rendez-Vous

This song contains snippets of a tape my sister found when she was cleaning out old boxes of my mother. The sound of her voice, she sounded so young and hesitant… I know she was going through hard times.

She was trying to understand things that happened in her life and was uncertain about her future so she tried an astrologist a friend of hers recommended. I was unsure if she would like it or not that I used her personal conversations so I spent a lot of time adding and deleting parts of the tape until it felt right.

One of the most important lines on the tape was the last one where she asks: “But how can you know all of this?” I think the music works introspective and as we had some uplifting moments on this album before I found it soothing to have a less ecstatic track as the closing track of this album.

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Check out Bolis Pupul’s upcoming tour dates here.