Gaspar Claus Details First Album in Five Years, Cells

Cellist and composer Gaspar Claus has announced Cells, his first album since 2021’s Tancade. It lands 25 September on InFiné. A new single, “Désir des astres,” is out now, following April’s “World of Idols.”

Claus originally wrote the theme for “Désir des astres” for a documentary, but it was cut. “The cello often carries that melancholic sweetness so unique to it, and it weighed the film down a bit,” he says. “So I dug it up, reworked it, and pushed it towards an almost epic boldness. It’s an ideal way to kick off the journey this album offers.”

Cells is the result of a tight collaboration with producer Basile3, who helped transform Claus’s cello into what he calls “electronic matter.” The two recorded the album in a custom-built studio, feeding the instrument through machines to generate synthetic, sometimes percussive sounds while retaining an organic core. Producer, guitarist, and singer-songwriter Matt Elliott appears on the track “Cupidon.”

“Basile is the ‘producer’ of this record: he turned my fantasies of transforming the cello into electronic matter into reality,” Claus says. “Listening to the album, I feel a kind of fertile struggle between the instrument and its digitalization.”

The album’s title reflects a structural idea more than a concept. Each track functions as a “musical cell, both autonomous and connected to the others,” Claus explains, but he resists imposing narrative on instrumental music. “Music, especially instrumental music, doesn’t necessarily need a narrative or discourse imposed on it.”

Cells is out 25 September via InFiné.