Chevreuil is the French rock duo of Julien F. and Tony C., formed in 1998 after the two met three years earlier at an Art School in Nantes. From the beginning, they approached the idea of a band as a performative art installation — a self-contained, sculptural device for sound, space, and motion rather than a conventional rock ensemble. Julien and Tony, respectively, in their parlance, play “magnetic drums” and “magnetic guitar,” an analogy for their livewire, one-on-one chemistry, where the music seems to fall together by way of natural forces.
Rejecting the addition of a bassist early on, Chevreuil built its music around reduction, repetition, and architecture. Tony’s guitar runs through four amplifiers arranged around Julien’s drum kit, creating a quadraphonic field that surrounds the players. Julien’s 1976 Ludwig kit — built the same year both musicians were born — is never amplified, allowing the group to perform anywhere so long as there’s a single outlet for the amplifiers. The result is both physical and spatial — a minimalist engine of rhythm and resonance that behaves as much like an installation as a band. Their sound construction operates like an assemblage of interlocking blocks of energy, each part locking precisely into the next.
Between 1998 and 2006, Chevreuil released four albums, an EP, and several singles. Their recorded legacy includes Sport (2000), Ghetto Blaster (2001), Châteauvallon (2003), Science (EP, 2006), and Capoëira (2006). The last three were recorded by Steve Albini in Chicago. Issued on RuminanCe (Paris, France), Sickroom Records (Chicago, USA), and StiffSlack (Nagoya, Japan), these releases placed Chevreuil within a transatlantic network of artists who explore form and texture rather than genre convention. Tony drew inspiration as much from Gothic architecture and medieval painting as from rock’s lineage, while Julien leaned toward the extremities of 20th-century Western music, from classic rock to noise and beyond.
After a 20-year hiatus, Chevreuil returns with the double albumStadium, recorded in France in January 2025 and slated for release on April 24, 2026. The project began as a plan to reissue their early work through Computer Students™, but quickly evolved into a new entity. Having not played together for 15 years, the duo spent a week together testing whether their long-dormant chemistry could still function. By day they recorded; by night they cooked for each other, rekindling the ease and discipline that defined their partnership. Julien’s decision to resume drumming was partly inspired by watching his teenage son struggle and persist through his first drum lessons — a moment that reignited his own desire to engage with the instrument’s physical language...
Learn more about the album and the band by visiting our website.