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A Cheval de frise is a defensive structure. Under this name Thomas Bonvalet proposed to Vincent Beysselance to form a duo, creating an anxious, agitated music with perpetually changing, almost baroque, patterns. Urgent, emotional and paradoxically structured and thought out in the finest detail ("A wasp in a bottle", as it was described by some at the time), it drew much of its influences from the many forms of American post-hardcore of the 90s, while manifesting its own undeniable singularity from the start.
In the fall of 1998, freshly arrived in Bordeaux, Thomas, former bass player in an obscure noise rock band called Amble, meets Vincent, drummer for the band Tomy. Their formation would be instrumental, amplified classical guitar replacing the bass, giving them their signature sound. The group works avidly, learning and discovering the possibilities of its instruments. In a French musical landscape where rock and guitar music do not enthuse much anymore, Cheval de frise comes as a surprise. Their stage performances, tense, feverish, fiery and on the edge of the abyss, are striking.
After a few demos, the group enters the studio and records their first eponymous album in June 2000. The record would be released a few months later, on CD, by the Bordeaux label Sonore. It is received with enthusiasm, allowing Cheval de frise to tour all over Europe. Reissued a few years later by Sickroom records for the band's only American tour, this record has not been available on vinyl until its re-release by New York label Computer Students in 2022.
Their second album, "Fresques sur les parois secrètes du crâne" would be recorded in September 2002. The band splits in August 2004 leaving the mini album "la lame du Mat" to be released posthumously.
Around the world, many instrumental, energetic, fast and complex bands would emerge during this same period and in the following years, oftentimes described as "Math Rock". But the unique color of Cheval de frise remained, borrowed from a certain anachronistic romanticism. A music made of shadows, explosive nuances, precise gestures, kaleidoscopic patterns and spasms.
