Siem Reap

No one was really waiting for Gilles Demolder to make a solo record. After all, he had already built a name for himself in Oathbreaker and Wiegedood, two of Belgium’s heaviest and most revered underground exports. But after Oathbreaker dissolved—along with the relationship that had fueled its last stretch—Demolder wasn’t left with much except a laptop, a couple of cheap microphones and started writing songs that didn’t fit anywhere else. The result was Siem Reap and its self-recorded 2023 debut, Now What?. Lo-fi, confessional, and painfully direct, it was the sound of someone picking through the wreckage of their twenties and not always liking what they found. Equal parts diary and drunken voicemail, it introduced Demolder not just as a singer-songwriter in the traditional sense, but as a brutally self-aware narrator — one just as willing to mock himself as to mourn the past. Wishin’ I Was Fishin’, Siem Reap’s second album, doesn’t lose that intimacy, but opens up the sound — thanks in part to longtime friends and collaborators Wim Coppers (Oathbreaker, Wiegedood) on drums and Jasper Hollevoet (Ventilateur) on bass. It’s not lo-fi anymore; it’s rich, detailed, and dynamic — but still rooted in confessional songwriting, warped folk, and Demolder’s deeply dry sense of humor.