Sylvain Chauveau (Alumni) - FatCat Records

Sylvain Chauveau (alumni)

Sylvain Chauveau was born in 1971 in Bayonne, France, and currently lives in Brussels, Belgium. After several years singing and playing guitar in rock bands, Chauveau decided, in 1998, to dedicate his time to a solo project with three main ideas - staying as close as possible to the abstract beauty of 'silence'; making sure that each sound committed is absolutely necessary; and finding his own roots within his cultural and personal history. The latter has led him to the quest for a truly modern French music - a music whose trajectory stretches from early 20th-century chamber music composers (Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, Erik Satie, Gabriel Faure, etc.), through the discoveries of mid-century "musique concrete" and the electro-acoustic school (Pierre Henry, Luc Ferrari, Bernard Parmegiani, etc.), and emerging through post-punk philosophy and a pop culture embracing short, simple and melodic works.

Chauveau's 2002 album 'Un Autre Decembre' was one of the first to be released on FatCat's post-classical imprint 130701 Records. Prior to this, he had previously released two albums under his own name ('Le Livre Noir du Capitalisme' - 2000, and 'Nocturne Impalpable' - 2001). Following 'Un Autre Decembre' - a gentle and restrained study of micro-textures in the post-classical field - Chauveau spent 10 years recording and releasing music with several such labels as Type Records, Creative Sources, and Les Disques du Soleil et de l'Acier - each of which featured very minimal compositions for acoustic instruments, electronics and vocal.

An established film and dance composer in his own rights, Chauveau also plays in the collaborative outfits 0 (with Joel Merah and Stephane Garin), On (with Steven Hess), and in the cinematic avant-rock band Arca (with Joan Cambon). Sylvain runs the label Onement, whose aim is to release single-copy vinyl records. He has also composed an extremely long-form piece of music entitled title is 'You Will Leave No Mark on the Winter Snow', whose duration is seven years.