Sébastien Tellier

Blending pop, chanson, and electronic sounds in his singular style, Sébastien Tellier takes cues from France’s renowned film composers as well as the French touch movement that surfaced in the late 1990s. The singer/songwriter, composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist first displayed his gift for evocative melodies on the 2001 release L'Incroyable Vérité, then stepped into his idols’ path by scoring the 2004 film Narco. He next examined sweeping themes with a playful eye on the 2004 album Politics and the 2008 album Sexuality, the latter yielding the single “Divine,” France’s Eurovision entry that year. During the 2010s he broadened his palette through the Brazilian hues of 2014’s L'Aventura while taking on production duties alongside Caroline Polachek and Dita Von Teese. On 2020’s Domesticated he brought his refined, playful sensibility to ordinary domestic routines. Although he stayed largely a cult figure beyond France, Tellier reached broader listeners via tracks such as the 2004 song “La Ritournelle,” which surfaced in multiple films and television programs and was sampled by the Weeknd for the title cut of his 2013 album Kiss Land.

Born to a musician father in Paris, Tellier studied guitar and piano while absorbing the records his father shared with him, including Pink Floyd’s Atom Heart Mother. Apart from Serge Gainsbourg and Michel Polnareff, the French pop he encountered in childhood left him unmoved; instead he gravitated toward the work of François de Roubaix, Michel Legrand, and other domestic soundtrack composers. By the time he issued his own material, the French touch scene—home to Phoenix and Air—was gaining momentum. After his wistful, melodic pop track “Fantino” appeared on the Source label’s 1999 various-artists compilation Source Material, it drew the notice of Air’s Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel, who eventually placed Tellier on their Record Makers imprint. He laid down the songs for his debut album L'Incroyable Vérité between September 1999 and March 2000, performing and producing nearly every instrument himself. Following the June 2001 release, Tellier toured extensively with Air, then launched his film-scoring career with the music for Gilles Lellouche and Tristan Aurouet’s 2004 comedy Narco.

Tellier reemerged in January 2004 with his second album Politics, produced by Cassius’ Philippe Zdar and featuring Mr. Oizo, the Bulgarian Symphony Orchestra, and Nigerian drummer Tony Allen of Fela Kuti fame. The set contained “La Ritournelle,” a track whose reach was underscored by numerous remixes, among them one by Metronomy. Politics climbed to number 123 on France’s Top Albums chart. The next year he revisited earlier material in acoustic form with pianist Simon Dalmais, issuing the results as Sessions in April 2006 (released in the U.K. as Universe and incorporating selections from the Narco score). In 2007 he rejoined Mr. Oizo for the soundtrack and score to the latter’s debut feature film, Steak.

For his subsequent album, February 2008’s Sexuality, Tellier enlisted Daft Punk’s Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo as producer, resulting in a sleeker electronic texture. The lead single “Divine” was selected as France’s Eurovision entry; although it did not win, the performance and ensuing debate—many French observers questioned whether English lyrics qualified the song as sufficiently “French”—raised his international profile. Sexuality entered the French Top 40 and also charted in Belgium and Sweden. A companion remix collection, Sexuality Remix, arrived in 2010.

Tellier resurfaced in April 2012 with My God Is Blue, a spiritually oriented album co-produced by Mr. Flash and Pavle Kovacevic that included a de Homem-Christo collaboration on the title track; it reached number 17 on France’s Top Albums chart. The following October brought Confection, a set of delicate instrumentals partly prompted by his grandmother’s passing and drawn from pieces originally intended for an unreleased film score; the album peaked at number 52 in France. Also in 2013 he joined Chairlift’s Caroline Polachek for the single “In the Crew of Tea Time.” On his next full-length, L'Aventura, Tellier introduced bright yet enigmatic Brazilian accents. Recorded primarily at Jean Michel Jarre’s studio in Bougival and in Paris, the basic tracks were later developed in Rio de Janeiro with percussionist Robertinho Silva and arranger Arthur Verocai. Upon its July 2014 release, L'Aventura reached number 53 on the French Top Album chart.

In 2016 Tellier contributed to Jarre’s Electronica, Vol. 2: The Heart of the Noise. That same year he scored the films Marie et les Naufragés and Saint Amour as well as the web series A Girl Is a Gun. He also recorded a version of Culture Club’s “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me” with Dita Von Teese for an amfAR benefit compilation, paving the way for his songwriting and production work on her 2018 self-titled debut album. Tellier returned in 2020, first appearing on Salvatore Ganacci’s February single “Boycycle,” then releasing his own album Domesticated in May. Drawing from his everyday experiences as a husband and father, the record included production contributions from Jam City and Zdar. That November he issued Simple Mind, a collection of reworkings drawn from Domesticated, Sexuality, My God Is Blue, and L'Aventura.