Chlöe

The sounds crafted by Parisian DJ and musician Chloé Thévenin, who performs primarily under her first name, stretch across floor-filling minimal techno, shadowy confessional downtempo, and even blues-tinged indie rock. Particularly experimental and cinematic, her solo albums such as 2010's One in Other and 2017's Endless Revisions feature prominent guitars, intimate vocals delivered both sung and spoken, plus abstract song forms. Numerous club-focused EPs have also appeared, among them 2021's Mars 500. Widely respected behind the decks, she has performed at clubs and festivals worldwide while issuing several well-received mix CDs. Co-founder of Kill the DJ Records, which grew out of the celebrated club night at Parisian venue Le Pulp, she subsequently established the additional club night and label Lumière Noire. Beyond dance music circles, Chloé has explored classical repertoire, film scoring, and contemporary art contexts, including the 2021 score for choreographic work Static Shot. With collaborator Ben Shemie she launched the duo High Season, resulting in the spontaneously recorded psychedelic techno album The Call issued in 2023.

Mid-'90s law studies at Université Panthéon-Assas coincided with the start of her DJ career. Residency at lesbian nightclub Le Pulp followed, where she helped shape the influential monthly Kill the DJ event series. Original productions began surfacing in 2002 with the Erosoft EP on Karat Records. The 2004 mix CD I Hate Dancing, titled after a track from that EP, came via French label Human. Further singles emerged on imprints including Gomma, BPitch Control, and Crack&Speed.

Kill the DJ became a label in 2005 when Chloé and fellow Le Pulp resident Ivan Smagghe established it; the pair co-mixed The Dysfunctional Family the next year. Her first full-length, the ambitious The Waiting Room, arrived in 2007. Live at Robert Johnson, a slow-burning mix CD tied to the Frankfurt club where she frequently played, followed in 2008. The more downtempo and enigmatic One in Other, her second studio album, surfaced in 2010.

Throughout the 2010s she continued issuing techno singles and playing prestigious venues such as Berghain, Watergate, and Rex Club, yet increasingly concentrated on live performances and non-dance pursuits. A live film score for Alfred Hitchcock's Blackmail was presented in 2012, and a live score accompanied a video by Franco-Lebanese artist Anri Sala at the 2013 Venice Biennale. In 2016 she joined percussionist Vassilena Serafimova to interpret Steve Reich's music for the French television series Variations. Work with Algerian Kabyle musicians produced the soundtrack for Lidia Terki's film Paris la Blanche, released in 2017. That same year her third solo album Endless Revisions appeared on her own Lumière Noire imprint, featuring guest vocals from Ben Shemie of Suuns and French pop veteran Alain Chamfort. Companion releases Endless Revisions: Live and Endless Revisions: Remixes followed in 2019.

Instrumental techno returned with the 2021 Mars 500 EP on Permanent Vacation. Also that year came Static Shot, an EP created with Pete Harden of Ensemble Klang that supplies music for a dance piece directed by choreographer Maud Le Pladec and performed by CCN-Ballet de Lorraine. Sequenza, a full-length collaboration with Serafimova, likewise emerged in 2021. Further work with Le Pladec yielded the 2022 choreographic project Counting Stars with You (Musiques Femmes), which generated an EP. The soundtrack to the film Arthur Rambo and the techno single "Night Rider" both appeared that year as well. Her original score for Thomas Salvador's film La Montagne was issued in 2023. High Season's debut full-length The Call, credited to Chloé and Shemie, arrived via Permanent Vacation. Additional scoring for the film Blanquita took place, and an extended edition of Sequenza containing numerous remixes was released.