Shape of the Unknown’ is kind of a double LP that fully embraces the idea of exploration. It is CHLOÉ’s most expansive and immersive work to date.
‘Shape of the Unknown’ is CHLOÉ’s fourth proper studio album. Its predecessor, ‘Endless Revisions’, was released in 2017. Nine years have passed. Nine years during which CHLOÉ has continued digging for music, DJing at internationally renowned clubs and festivals including Rex Club, Robert Johnson, Panorama Bar, Nuits Sonores, Glastonbury and many more, releasing EPs and remixes, while also allowing herself the time to explore entirely new creative paths.
CHLOÉ – Shape of the Unknown
TRACKLIST
01. CHLOÉ – Undertow
02. CHLOÉ – Half Gravity
03. CHLOÉ – Shapeshifter
04. CHLOÉ – As If
05. CHLOÉ – Bright On
06. CHLOÉ – More Than Just One Feeling feat. Ben Shemie
07. CHLOÉ – Inner Bass
08. CHLOÉ – Silent Drive
09. CHLOÉ – TWYR feat. Olivia Merilahti
10. CHLOÉ – Drifter
11. CHLOÉ – Same Kind feat. Kittin
12. CHLOÉ – Repeating The Obvious (Single 2 – October 2nd)
13. CHLOÉ – Falling Beyond
14. CHLOÉ – Infinite Curve
Shape of the Unknown Track by Track
1. Undertow
An opening track that immediately sets the course: swimming against the current, alone yet driven by curiosity, guided by David Enhco’s trumpet. Once you reach a certain depth, you could swear you hear the song of the sirens.
2. Half Gravity
It begins like an ambient piece before gradually gathering momentum, unfolding into a journey in every sense of the word. Airy, gentle, almost pastoral, the track carries a quiet sense of hope. At times it bursts open; at others it searches for calm, until it ultimately takes us wherever it chooses. We wouldn’t have it any other way.
3. Shapeshifter
It takes only a brief pause near the beginning for the engine to roar back to life. Shapeshifter is a track built on tension, forever anticipating the moment of transformation. Because that’s what it’s all about: shifting boundaries, becoming something entirely unrecognisable. It also serves as the album’s first single.
4. As If
What if, in the middle of the night, a slightly malfunctioning mechanical keyboard suddenly began playing on its own, following no rules but its own? It might sound something like this: tender yet unsettling. A nursery rhyme for mechanical toys.
5. Bright On
A piece designed to spark dreams and set the imagination in motion. Bright On works just as well standing up—its hypnotic rhythms tracing circles around you—as it does lying down, where you can watch the countless details shimmering beneath its surface. Fragments of melodies, songs still taking shape, half-heard and half-imagined, quietly woven by CHLOÉ beneath the main texture.
6. More Than Just One Feeling (feat. Ben Shemie)
Perhaps the album’s most overtly pop moment. The familiar yet distant voice belongs, of course, to Ben Shemie of Suuns, CHLOÉ’s longtime companion and, in many ways, her musical counterpart. Here Ben lays out his thoughts, untangles his doubts and lets CHLOÉ’s sound branch into multiple possible directions. So many shades, so many emotional colours. One idea conceals another, then another again—a celebration of impulse and ever-shifting feelings. It’s impossible to know where to focus.
7. Inner Bass
CHLOÉ at her most distinctive: obsessive, acidic and undeniably sensual. This is an intimate voyage that seeks to reach the deepest place within us, where each of us carries an inner light. As on Undertow, David Enhco’s trumpet quietly guides the way, ensuring we never lose ourselves in deep waters. The best guides are the discreet ones—they know how to keep secrets. Be warned: this is a trap of a track, capable of pulling you far away, like some dark disco Bermuda Triangle.
8. Silent Drive
A liminal landscape of ominous beeps and sudden bursts of unidentified high-frequency sounds. In just a few minutes, Silent Drive sketches the hidden side of the ocean floor, populated by unfamiliar noises and voices speaking unknown languages, sending unfamiliar signals. Should we fear them, or learn how to dance with them? The answer lies within the question.
9. TWYR (feat. Olivia Merilahti)
One of the defining moments of Shape of the Unknown—perhaps even the long-awaited encounter with the unknown itself. Here, producer CHLOÉ and vocalist Olivia Merilahti (The Dø) move beyond the usual conventions of both pop and electronic music. Olivia’s voice bends, splits, stretches and transforms, while the track itself continually changes shape: reptilian creature, poisonous fruit, living organism. The entire album has been leading towards this moment, and here we finally arrive—in the heart of Brocéliande Forest, where every sound has the power to cast a spell.
10. Drifter
Originally conceived as a nine-minute centrepiece on the maxi single, Drifter appears here in its 3’43” radio edit without sacrificing any of its epic scale. The bass continues to draw hypnotic circles while a soaring drone line breaks free into a moving, almost heroic solo. Beyond a certain point, you begin imagining bagpipes, warning sirens—Messmer on the dancefloor, or something close to it.
11. Same Kind (feat. Kittin)
The guest alone is enough to spark anticipation. CHLOÉ and Kittin have known each other since the earliest days of their careers, yet they waited until 2026 to record together. Same Kind begins with Kittin’s unmistakable voice, her singular phrasing turning the track into an intimate confession, searching for the truest words to express the deepest similarities. Welcome to the family of outsiders—those who resemble no one but themselves.
12. Repeating the Obvious
After recognition and reunion (same vibe, same kind), comes the escape. Here the obvious thing to do is simply to launch yourself alone into a landscape that suddenly begins spinning endlessly, like a carousel. In an intimate inner voice, CHLOÉ shares fleeting impressions and emotional states before carving a path through colliding rhythmic elements. Moving beyond déjà vu so that nothing feels obvious anymore. Repeating the Obvious will be the album’s second single.
13. Falling Beyond
A gently futuristic landing after the journey. Falling Beyond recalls the spirit of the Cologne School—that elegant strain of ambient pop, at once melancholic and lyrical, which has always remained a welcoming harbour for CHLOÉ. Returning here may well be the safest way to emerge unscathed from an expedition into the unknown.
14. Infinite Curve
Infinite Curve closes the album while simultaneously opening the door to what comes next: the stage and the live experience. Across nearly four minutes, CHLOÉ reflects on a decade of boundary-pushing experimentation, from her collaborations with percussionist Vassilena Serafimova to her work composing for film. Yet the track also evokes the finest moments of Talking Heads—more specifically David Byrne and Brian Eno’s My Life in the Bush of Ghosts—through its desire to step outside oneself in order to encounter the other.
When is CHLOÉ’s Shape of the Unknown album released??
“Shape of the Unknown” will be released on October 30th and is available to pre-order now.
What formats will CHLOÉ’s Shape of the Unknown album be available on?
Shape of the Unknown will be available on CD and digital platforms, with full-length tracks selected for a double vinyl product.
ABOUT CHLOÉ
Her first name alone has become a kind of password – an unspoken reference for those in the know. CHLOÉ. A synonym for otherworldly DJ sets, far removed from the ordinary, guided by an almost atomic sense of elegance. She plays records like cards, revealing each one only when the moment is right.
You could list the legendary clubs she has left her mark on – Robert Johnson, Berghain / Panorama Bar – her long-running Rex Club residencies, or the major festivals that have welcomed her, including Mutek, Burning Man, Sónar, DGTL, Nuits Sonores and Glastonbury. But CHLOÉ’s true strength lies in her ability to treat every weekend as a new beginning.
She is deliberately forgetful of the scenes she has passed through. That refusal to dwell on the past keeps her unburdened. CHLOÉ plays entirely in the present. Her transversal approach to weaving together club music, leftfield, electro and minimal techno – often bringing forgotten records back to life – creates striking contrasts and has helped define both the transformative power of the club and the emotional force of a DJ set.
She doesn’t rely on memory, but on obsession. Which is why her vision of disco is constantly shifting: dark, disko, new wave… A certain richness of shadow, a game of hide-and-seek with letting go, robotic textures that embrace restraint and the pleasure of stepping slightly off-centre. CHLOÉ’s sets resemble clubs themselves: spaces that grow darker, deeper and more unified as the dancefloor fills with flamboyant dancers. Versatile, uncompromising electronic music that engages both body and mind.
The same could be said of her own productions. That much becomes clear with every release, often on some of electronic music’s most iconic labels. Beginning with Drifter, her latest EP on her own label Lumière Noire, alongside The Dawn – a long-form piece somewhere between minimal techno and new wave – the more direct Mars 500, and Night Rider on DGTL Records. Her distinctive touch can also be heard in remixes for Metronomy, Étienne Daho, Malik Djoudi, Feu! Chatterton and Mirwais. Throughout her career, she has continually shaped her own sound, carving out a singular path through the underground electronic scene.
From her studio in Paris’ Ménilmontant district, CHLOÉ also creates more ambient works for contemplative mornings (SloMo A/V), develops collaborations with artists such as Vassilena Serafimova and Ben Shemie, and composes original scores for film.
You could say these projects belong to a different side of her. Or perhaps they reveal exactly the same artist. The dreamlike CHLOÉ of the studio is inseparable from the fiercely uncompromising CHLOÉ of the dancefloor.
CHLOÉ – always herself. Different, yet unlike anyone else. (Text by P. Azoury)
Stay tuned to the Techno Trip Tracks of the Week selection and Listen to CHLOÉ’s new music first
Photo credit: Sarah Makharine
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