Talos

Known for his sweltering, reverb-laden songs and falsetto vocals, Talos emerged as an indie pop musician from Cork, Ireland. Ethereal material on the 2014 release Tethered Bones and the 2016 release O Sanctum quickly drew attention. His debut full-length arrived in 2017 as the Choice Music Prize-nominated Wild Alee, with the follow-up Far Out Dust appearing in 2019 and the third album Dear Chaos arriving in 2022.

Eoin French developed an early fascination with music, beginning piano lessons at age five. By roughly twelve he had shifted focus to guitar, only to return to piano in his early twenties in order to strengthen his contemporary songwriting. During his teenage years he absorbed an eclectic range of influences that encompassed Dr. Dre, David Bowie, Kate Bush, and Bob Dylan. He later attended the Cork School of Music, where he became a member of Hush Dream Cry; the group issued the EP Voices in 2012. French subsequently departed the band with plans to relocate to Los Angeles for architectural studies, yet altered those plans when his girlfriend fell suddenly ill and he chose to remain in Cork.

At that point he launched the Talos project, issuing the tracks “Tethered Bones” and “Bloom” in late 2014. The sparse, dub-like electronica of those pieces generated favorable notice and prompted comparisons to James Blake, Bon Iver, and James Vincent McMorrow. A brief hiatus followed while he took up lecturing in architecture at University College Cork.

He resurfaced in 2016 with the O Sanctum EP on Feel Good Lost, then delivered his first official full-length, Wild Alee, in 2017; the album later received a Choice Music Prize nomination in Ireland. The Live at St. Luke’s EP appeared the next year. Early 2019 brought the sophomore album Far Out Dust, an atmospheric twelve-song journey that enlisted frequent collaborator Ross Dowling alongside Doug Schadt (Maggie Rogers, Wet), Valgeir Sigurðsson (Sigur Rós, Feist), and Damian Taylor (Björk, Arcade Fire). Promotion included a tour spanning China and the United States, during which an artist residency in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, supplied further inspiration. Working again with Dowling plus Bon Iver producer Brian Joseph and Icelandic composer Atli Örvarsson, French shaped a new vision drawn from that setting and released Dear Chaos in 2022.

After a short illness, French died at his home in Cork on August 11, 2024.