sylvain chauveau

I discovered Sylvain Chauveau's "Un autre décembre" fairly late last year. But have strong memories of the days when I really started listening to it, in the car at night, driving to pick up my girlfriend at a friends place, the snow falling.

I thought "Un autre décembre" was one of the very best albums of 2003. Sylvain Chauveau, what were your favorite albums from last year?
i would say eliane radigue's "adnos I-III", bernhard gunter / steve roden / richard chartier's "(for morton feldman)", david sylvian's "blemish", need thomas windham's "employment patterns", and alexander knaifel's ecm record.

How was the album recieved in France?
"un autre decembre" was well received, i think. but it doesn't touch a big audience, of course, and it's not supposed to. it's themost intimate record i did.

Is there any contemporary french artists that you feel related to?
i don't really feel related to other artists but i really enjoy the work of the band Man, yann tiersen, luc ferrari, eliane radigue, bernard parmegiani, nicolas bacri, sebastien roux, hervé boghossian and others.

Your new album, "Des plumes dans la tête", seems interesting. Will it be released by Fat Cat outside of France? If not, will people outside of France be able to get it?
DSA releases "des plumes dans la tete" for the whole world. so it will be hard to find it outside of france. there is a small distribution for it in belgium, japan, england, usa. the most simple is to order my records directly to the label on www.dsa-wave.com. and it's fast and cheaper.

How would you compare it to "Un autre décembre" and "Le Livre Noir du Capitalisme"? (Unfortunatly, I haven't heard "Nocturne Impalpable".)
"un autre decembre" was the very naked version of my music : stripped down to the bone. and "le livre noir du capitalisme" (the death book of capitalism) was my first solo record : full of everything i wanted to put in my music before i die! there are a lot of intruments and samples, and different ambiences. but it's melodic and the idea of piano and strings instrumental is already there.

Would you say that there is something uniquely "french" about your music?
i've been trying since the beginning to create some imaginary "french music", because i didn't want to copy american and english musicans. that's why i decided to use piano and strings, like debussy and satie, and electronic sounds, like bernard parmegiani or luc ferrari. but you don't have to be french to understand this music. it has no lyrics and the melody are really simple. everyone could listen to it. i hope so. and my only goal is to try to approach the most beautiful music in the world.