L'Ocelle Mare

The French duo Cheval De Frise, i.e. Vincent Beysselance (drums) and Thomas Bonvalet (guitar), released two albums of instrumental post-rock: Cheval De Frise (Sonore, 2000), with the exuberant cavalcade of Connexion Monstrueuse Entre Un Objet Et Son Image, and Fresques Sur Les Parois Secretes Du Crane (Ruminance, 2003), with more impressionistic and jazzy vignettes like Bora Lustrai and Deux Nappes Ductiles.

Thomas Bonvalet then started the solo project L'Ocelle Mare with L'Ocelle Mare (Ruminance, 2007 - Sickroom, 2008), that collects 16 brief fragments of solo guitar and harmonica improvisation. The seven-movement solo EP Porte d'Octobre (2008), on which Bonvalet plays guitar, banjo, harmonica and metronome, is an abstract work that explores a territory at the border between dissonant free music and musique concrete. The nine-movement EP Engourdissement (2009) is more of the same, but also a more sophisticated take on atmosphere. Only three of the movements extend beyond two minutes. The nine sketches of Serpentement (2012) wander more freely and wildly into ambiguous distorted timbres to the point that the instruments cannot be easily identified. A banjo sounds like a sitar, and a concertina sounds like a dentist's tool. The distortion becomes the real protagonist. Temps en Terre (2017), another nine-movement mini-album, incorporated percussion and clockworks. Sans Chemin (2021) contains 15 mini-sonatas for various combination of instruments, for example: the minimalist repetition of Telephone, Guitare, Interrupteurs, Membrane, the tribal percussion of Metronome, Guitare, Scotch De Peintre, Membranes, the ambient droning of Orgue, Guitare, Colophane, Tambourins, the soul-less clockwork of Eglise, Guitare, Scotch De Peintre, Interrupteurs.

In 2012 Thomas Bonvalet also joined Powerdove.

Thomas Bonvalet rearranged songs of Canadian duo Arlt on Arlt & Thomas Bonvalet (2014).

Bonvalet also collaboration with • Jean-Luc Guionnet on Fusees (2015).