David Chalmin - La terre invisible (2019)

Showcasing versatile and highly productive talents David Chalmin has quite an impressive repertoire as a producer and recording engineer. Stretching from classical music to avant-garde, Chalmin has worked with Shannon Wright, The National, Katia & Marielle Labèque, Matt Elliott, The Third Eye Foundation, Zu, Angélique Ionatos, Gaspar Claus, Richard Reed Parry or Efterklang.

Alongside his studio efforts, he’s an accomplished composer and musician. In 2019, he writes 2 pieces, one for organ (Variations Festival Nantes), and another one for 100 pianos (Paris Philharmonie). Since September 2018, he’s associated composer at the Lieu Unique in Nantes. In 2017 he was commissioned by the Foundation Singer-Polignac and the Deauville Pâques Festival to write a piece for baroque ensemble and electronics. The same year, he wrote the music for Madonna’s short film « For Her » filmed by Luigi and Iango.

In 2016, he wrote the score for the ballet Star-Cross’d Lovers created at the Cité de la Musique in Paris. This piece was composed for pianists Katia & Marielle Labèque, electric guitar and percussions. Based on the story of Romeo and Juliet, it was recorded for Deutsche Grammophon in 2016. Together with Massimo Pupillo (ZU/Uruk) and drummer Raphaël Séguinier (UBUNOIR), he founded the band Triple Sun, a name revealing an unconditional love for the band Coil. With pianist Katia Labèque, they created a project based around Moondog’s music which was presented at Les Nuits de Fourvières in Lyon in 2016. The same year they joined the Dessner brothers (The National) and Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) for the project Invisible Bridge at the Paris Philharmonie.

While mixing the ambient project Orchard (Aidan Baker/Gaspar Claus/Frank Laurino/Maxime Tisserand) for the Mind Travels Series, label Ici d’ailleurs offered to release Chalmin’s first solo album. Jumping at the opportunity, David revealed himself to be a great electronic music composer as well as a radical producer.

If the genres Intelligent Dance Music (IDM) and Berlin School seem to be the most obvious way to present his compositions, they’re not sufficient to describe the variety of this album “La Terre Invisible” as it also contains industrial or classical inspirations. One thing is certain though, David Chalmin can proudly place his first solo album next to the likes of Jon Hopkins, Pantha du Prince or Andy Stott, for his contemporary approach of dancefloor music.