Chevel

Chevel, whose real name is Dario Tronchin, produces electronic music in Italy across a spectrum that stretches from hypnotic, minimal dance tracks to glitch-heavy, densely arranged explorations. As one of the first artists signed to Berlin’s Stroboscopic Artefacts, he issued minimal and dub-techno EPs on the label beginning in 2010 and started his own Enklav. imprint in 2012. Later projects such as the IDM-oriented 2015 album Blurse and the fragmented club constructions of 2018’s Always Yours carried his work deeper into experimental territory, while the 2020 single Bromine further distanced his rhythms from conventional patterns in favor of a weightless aesthetic.

Tronchin, originally from Treviso, made his first appearance in 2008 while still a teenager with the euphoric EP Before Leaving on Meerestief Records, which included a Motor City Drum Ensemble remix. After relocating to Berlin his approach shifted sharply; the 2010 release Monad I on Stroboscopic Artefacts presented austere, heavy textures built around stark, pounding beats. He moved back to Treviso in 2012, established Enklav., and put out several EPs on the new label that ventured further outward, among them the extended, slowed-down dub pieces of The Elements and the acid- and electro-tinged The Building. Apply Within, a lush yet minimal full-length, also appeared on Enklav., alongside the more direct, surging-techno EP Hearing on Non Series. In 2013 Non Series released his second album, Air Is Freedom, while Enklav. issued its first vinyl pressing, Rediscovery; A Loveable Inciter came out the same year on Vae Victis Records. Tronchin additionally adopted the Monday Night alias for low-key 12-inch releases on Monday Night Records.

Further 12-inch records surfaced in 2014 on Non Series—an Air Is Freedom remix single—and on Mistry, together with One Month Off, his return to Stroboscopic Artefacts, and “Artificial,” his debut under the Signalweiss name on Fracture. Two volumes of the Backwards Loops EPs, featuring some of Chevel’s most energetic and uptempo material to date, arrived on Non Series in 2015, as did the more abstract 10-inch “E” on Enklav. His most prominent release up to that point, the Blurse album on Stroboscopic Artefacts, followed in October 2015 and adopted a click’n’cuts style recalling labels such as Raster-Noton or Mille Plateaux. After a 2016 split 12-inch with Simo Cell and Alex Coulton and the 2017 single “Flying,” the 2018 album Always Yours appeared on Different Circles, the imprint run by Mumdance and Logos; he also issued the double EP In a Rush and Mercurial on his own label. A 2019 split EP with Hatcp came out on Prehistoric Silence, followed by the glitchy ambience of Unlimited Drinks on Fracture Label, which contained a Byetone remix. The 2020 Enklav. EP Elvine Unlocked leaned toward hacked-up U.K. bass, while Gass released the more abstract Glass Bridge. Chevel’s cinematic single Bromine appeared on Fabric’s Houndstooth imprint in 2020, with a house remix by Nathan Micay and an ambient version by Yamaneko issued the following year.