Feature – Sylvain Chauveau

Frittering electronics, as the drones expand like a child inflating a balloon, then snap, the sound bursts leaving nothing but the crackling of air and the churning vibrations that open the song.

Classical composition features heavily in the output of Sylvain Chauveau. Orchestrations are the blueprint for this renaissance of endeavours in the world of electronica.

Track A_ sees an inversion of medieval music, with two independent themes, or melodies, interspersed to create one entity. The purist out of his contemporaries, (who are here and here) Chauveau subtly implements minimalism through the texturing of sparse sound. One of the most distinguishable aspects of this music is that the distinct musical forms resemble film score. Every piece begs out for David Holmes, or whoever, to lean down from the heavenly clouds of Hollywood and grace them on some soundtrack.

Here’s the translation from an interview Chauveau did back in 2003 with popnews.com:

“I want a poetic aspect in my music. But as there aren’t any songs in my work, it tells me that the poetry must be in the titles. Like one-line poetry. As if these discs were collections of poetry and sound. That’s really what I’m looking for. From the end of the nineties to the beginning of the noughties, during 3 or 4 years I read Henri Michaux almost exclusively, that’s been an enormous source of inspiration for me. That left me to imagine so much musically. I read a list of titles in collections of Michaux and I say to myself that my pieces became closer to that.”

So the new record released on Type is called ‘S’ and here is a song called A_. Got to love poetry.

Sylvain Chauveau – A