Chloe

Chloé Thévenin, the Parisian DJ and musician who records and performs simply as Chloé, crafts tracks that stretch from propulsive minimal techno built for dancefloors to shadowy, introspective downtempo and blues-tinged indie rock. Her most expansive solo albums, One in Other (2010) and Endless Revisions (2017), emphasize experimental and cinematic qualities through prominent guitars, confessional vocals delivered both sung and spoken, and fluid, non-linear structures. She has also issued a steady stream of club-focused EPs, among them Mars 500 in 2021. Esteemed for her DJ sets, she has performed at clubs and festivals worldwide and produced several highly regarded mix CDs. She co-founded Kill the DJ Records, which grew out of the storied club night at Paris’s Le Pulp, and later launched the additional club night and label Lumière Noire. Outside club music, Chloé has pursued classical projects, film scoring, and contemporary art, including the choreographic work Static Shot, whose score appeared in 2021. With Ben Shemie she formed the duo High Season, spontaneously recording the psychedelic techno album The Call, released in 2023.

She began DJing in the mid-’90s while enrolled in law school at Université Panthéon-Assas. She soon became a resident at the lesbian nightclub Le Pulp and helped shape its trendsetting monthly series Kill the DJ. Her own productions first surfaced in 2002 with the Erosoft EP on Karat Records. The mix CD I Hate Dancing, titled after a track from that EP, was issued by the French label Human in 2004. Additional singles followed on Gomma, BPitch Control, and Crack&Speed.

In 2005 she and fellow Le Pulp resident Ivan Smagghe established Kill the DJ as a label; the pair co-mixed The Dysfunctional Family the next year. Her ambitious debut album, The Waiting Room, arrived in 2007. Live at Robert Johnson, a mix CD released by the label linked to the Frankfurt club where she frequently played, appeared in 2008. One in Other, her second studio album and a more restrained, enigmatic set, was released in 2010.

Throughout the 2010s Chloé continued releasing techno singles and headlining at major clubs including Berghain, Watergate, and Rex Club, yet increasingly turned toward live performances and work beyond dance music. She created a live score for a 2012 screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s Blackmail and another for a video by Franco-Lebanese artist Anri Sala at the 2013 Venice Biennale. In 2016 she and percussionist Vassilena Serafimova interpreted Steve Reich’s music for the French television series Variations. She collaborated with Algerian Kabyle musicians on the soundtrack to Lidia Terki’s Paris la Blanche, issued in 2017. That year also brought her third solo album, Endless Revisions, on Lumière Noire, featuring guest vocals from Ben Shemie of Suuns and French pop veteran Alain Chamfort. The companion releases Endless Revisions: Live and Endless Revisions: Remixes followed in 2019.

Chloé returned to instrumental techno with the Mars 500 EP on Permanent Vacation in 2021. The same year saw Static Shot, an EP recorded with Pete Harden of Ensemble Klang that supplies the score for a dance piece by choreographer Maud Le Pladec performed by CCN-Ballet de Lorraine. Sequenza, a full-length collaboration with Serafimova, also appeared in 2021. She maintained her partnership with Le Pladec on the women-composer-focused choreographic project Counting Stars with You (Musiques Femmes), which yielded an EP in 2022. Her soundtrack for the film Arthur Rambo and the techno single “Night Rider” were released that year as well. The original score for Thomas Salvador’s La Montagne appeared in 2023. Chloé and Shemie introduced their High Season project with the full-length The Call on Permanent Vacation. She also composed for the film Blanquita, while an expanded edition of Sequenza containing numerous remixes was issued.