Sylvain Chauveau

In the world of post-rock, artists like Pan.American and Stars of the Lid often rely on analog synth and treated guitars to project their cool world-weariness. For his third solo album, Parisian Sylvain Chauveau revisits the delta of minimalism: the piano. Chauveau’s miniatures channel the measured, pensive play of Erik Satie — simple chords left to echo in the accumulation of silence. Four short pieces titled "Granulation (1-4)" push us into the present, consisting of the digital noise and subtle field recordings that are current electronic minimalism mainstays. These elements eventually bleed into the periphery of the piano compositions giving the impression of Fennesz having his bandwidth invaded by Chopin’s "Nocturnes.” An accordion coda completes the short journey (12 pieces in under 24 minutes) with a kind of graceful landing in the middle ground of 1920s Paris. Overall, more of a musical step forward than a glance over the shoulder.