Sylvain Chauveau HHV Records 4 Items

Vinyls were pressed on audiophile 180 gram vinyl by Schallplattenfabrik Pallas in Germany

Boxset contains: • full-colored soft-touch laminated thick boxset • 3x 180 gram green bottle clear vinyl individually housed in 350 gram soft-touch laminated and shrinkwrapped LP covers with 3 mm spine • download coupon with a code to download Flac version of the albums

The collection Politique du silence contains the recordings of Des plumes dans la tête (2004), Un autre Décembre (2003) and Nocturne impalpable (2001) on coloured 180 gram vinyls. The cover features artwork by French photographer Valéry Lorenzo.

"When I discovered the simple and powerful black and white pictures by Valéry Lorenzo, in the 90s, I immediately fell in love with them. We became good friends and since then I ask him to let me use one of his photos for most of my album covers, or to make my portrait for press shots. It has become a real collaboration, music and images, for more than 25 years. It was then logical to ask him again for the cover of this box set, like a gentle reflection on my piano and strings era. It's a true honour for me to see my early music recollected, repackaged, remastered after all this time. Which gives me hope that this music, in which I've put all my soul and heart during the years 2001 to 2003, is maybe not forgotten yet." ― Sylvain Chauveau

Nocturne Impalpable is a world of minimalism, abstraction, and contemporary rendition of classical music with variations for the piano, clarinet, strings, and accordion which are often compared to the compositions of composers Harold Budd and Claude Debussy. Here, Chauveau partially reveals his versatility as a composer by connecting electronic elements, noises, and ambient planes with monumental strings and piano preludes.

The album of piano variations Un autre Décembre is interspersed with field recordings and electronic noises. The inspiration for the recording of the album and for its name was the song Jaurès by the Belgian singer and composer Jacques Brel. This song tells the story of the grandparent’s generation who toiled in the mines.

An album of 20 short instrumental sketches with several delicate intermezzos for the piano, string quartet, and the clarinet, Des plumes dans la tête, was composed for the eponymous film by director Thomas de Thier.

Sylvain Chauveau was born in 1971 in the French town of Bayonne and currently lives in Barcelona. His extensive discography of mainly meditative neo-classical recordings for the music labels FatCat, Sub Rosa, Sonic Pieces, and Flau is enriched by several collaborations and his participation in the Ensemble 0, Arca, and On projects. Chauveau has also composed many film soundtracks as well as music for the theatre. He has presented his works in Prague several times, most recently in the spring of 2024 at the Spectaculare festival.

Sylvain Chauveau has been releasing quiet and minimal compositions on various labels for more than two decades. »ultra-minimal« marks his debut for Sonic Pieces and takes the minimal approach even further, centring on reduction and limitation. Itwas recorded live at Café Oto, at one of Sylvain’s rare solo concerts and the first time he performed publicly with only acoustic instruments; no machines, no recorded sounds have been used, only piano, guitar, harmonium and melodica, played one at the time.

Sylvain Chauveau's debut album »Le livre noir du capitalisme« is a melancholic milestone – and a precursor of what later would become the Modern Classical genre. With his release in 2000, Chauveau created a landmark of contemporary electronic music, parallel to the first releases of Jóhann Jóhannsson and Max Richter.