Etant Donnes is a French duo named after Marcel Duchamp's last major work. The group consists of brothers Marc and Eric Hurtado, born in Morocco and working mainly as performance artists and musicians. Their sound can be described as a mix of field recordings, found sounds and sometimes whispered, sometimes violent vocals. They describe their sounds like this: "Through Marc and Eric, it is the volume of each word that becomes an object-sculpture, together with the power of their bodies expressing their voices. Each event is a scream - indeed even the glissando - of the strength of the word that sometimes abruptly becomes a rock, a solid surface, not in the least fluvial, as is the narrative of a tale, novel or poetic epic. With both of them, there is no more trace of ancient prosodies, no more trace of the incomprehensible Sainte-Beuve who could claim: "I have to collect a volume of prose". The word, the voice, the volume take shape with each other, unveiling a theatre that theatre usually ignores, which has given it such things as a Samuel Beckett's Fin de Partie." Over the years Etant Donnes have collaborated with people like Lydia Lunch, Michael Gira, Alan Vega and Genesis P-Orridge. Les Cents Jours Clairs was the group's sixth album and was originally released on Bain Total in 1984.
Etant Donnes is a French duo named after Marcel Duchamp's last major work. The group consists of brothers Marc and Eric Hurtado, born in Morocco and working mainly as performance artists and musicians. Their sound can be described as a mix of field recordings, found sounds and sometimes whispered, sometimes violent vocals. They describe their sounds like this: "Through Marc and Eric, it is the volume of each word that becomes an object-sculpture, together with the power of their bodies expressing their voices. Each event is a scream - indeed even the glissando - of the strength of the word that sometimes abruptly becomes a rock, a solid surface, not in the least fluvial, as is the narrative of a tale, novel or poetic epic. With both of them, there is no more trace of ancient prosodies, no more trace of the incomprehensible Sainte-Beuve who could claim: "I have to collect a volume of prose". The word, the voice, the volume take shape with each other, unveiling a theatre that theatre usually ignores, which has given it such things as a Samuel Beckett's Fin de Partie." Over the years Etant Donnes have collaborated with people like Lydia Lunch, Michael Gira, Alan Vega and Genesis P-Orridge. Cinq Portes Soudées was the band's fifth album, originally released on Die Form's Bain Total label in 1984 on cassette only. For this CD re-issue we have added a long bonus track not on the original album.
Etant Donnes is a French duo named after Marcel Duchamp's last major work. The group consists of brothers Marc and Eric Hurtado, born in Morocco and working mainly as performance artists and musicians. Their sound can be described as a mix of field recordings, found sounds and sometimes whispered, sometimes violent vocals. They describe their sounds like this: "Through Marc and Eric, it is the volume of each word that becomes an object-sculpture, together with the power of their bodies expressing their voices. Each event is a scream - indeed even the glissando - of the strength of the word that sometimes abruptly becomes a rock, a solid surface, not in the least fluvial, as is the narrative of a tale, novel or poetic epic. With both of them, there is no more trace of ancient prosodies, no more trace of the incomprehensible Sainte-Beuve who could claim: "I have to collect a volume of prose". The word, the voice, the volume take shape with each other, unveiling a theatre that theatre usually ignores, which has given it such things as a Samuel Beckett's Fin de Partie." Over the years Etant Donnes have collaborated with people like Lydia Lunch, Michael Gira, Alan Vega and Genesis P-Orridge.
Ceux Qu'on Aime - Ce Que Je Hais was the band's fourth album, dating back to 1983 and originally issued on French Bain Total label (run by Philippe Fichot of Die Form). For this CD re-issue we have added a long bonus track not on the original album.
Following the first ever vinyl reissues of Aurore and Royaume, Aimant + Aimant – Penultimate Press is finally proud to make available the final part of this extraordinary trilogy.
Bleu is the final gesture and culmination of this period of creation where poésie and la nature form a magical alliance that resonates as an alchemical wedding. Having the conviction that Bleu was the ultimate arc based on the purity of natural sound and poetry, leaning towards a mystical spiritual search towards their own souls the band moved into commadere and collaboration with friends and ideals such as Lydia Lunch and Alan Vega.
Etant Donnes is a French duo named after Marcel Duchamp's last major work. The group consists of brothers Marc and Eric Hurtado, born in Morocco and working mainly as performance artists and musicians. Their sound can be described as a mix of field recordings, found sounds and sometimes whispered, sometimes violent vocals. They describe their sounds like this: "Through Marc and Eric, it is the volume of each word that becomes an object-sculpture, together with the power of their bodies expressing their voices. Each event is a scream - indeed even the glissando - of the strength of the word that sometimes abruptly becomes a rock, a solid surface, not in the least fluvial, as is the narrative of a tale, novel or poetic epic. With both of them, there is no more trace of ancient prosodies, no more trace of the incomprehensible Sainte-Beuve who could claim: "I have to collect a volume of prose". The word, the voice, the volume take shape with each other, unveiling a theatre that theatre usually ignores, which has given it such things as a Samuel Beckett's Fin de Partie."
Over the years Etant Donnes have collaborated with people like Lydia Lunch, Michael Gira, Alan Vega and Genesis P-Orridge. L'Etoile du Front was the band's third album, dating back to 1982 and originally issued on French Bain Total label (run by Philippe Fichot of Die Form). For this CD re-issue we have added a long bonus track not on the original album.
Etant Donnes is a French duo named after Marcel Duchamp's last major work. The group consists of brothers Marc and Eric Hurtado, born in Morocco and working mainly as performance artists and musicians. Their sound can be described as a mix of field recordings, found sounds and sometimes whispered, sometimes violent vocals. They describe their sounds like this: "Through Marc and Eric, it is the volume of each word that becomes an object-sculpture, together with the power of their bodies expressing their voices. Each event is a scream - indeed even the glissando - of the strength of the word that sometimes abruptly becomes a rock, a solid surface, not in the least fluvial, as is the narrative of a tale, novel or poetic epic. With both of them, there is no more trace of ancient prosodies, no more trace of the incomprehensible Sainte-Beuve who could claim: "I have to collect a volume of prose". The word, the voice, the volume take shape with each other, unveiling a theatre that theatre usually ignores, which has given it such things as a Samuel Beckett's Fin de Partie." Over the years Etant Donnes have collaborated with people like Lydia Lunch, Michael Gira, Alan Vega and Genesis P-Orridge. L'Opposition Et Les Cases Conjuguées Sont Réconciliées was the band's second album, originally released in 1981 on French label Bain Total, run by die Form, on cassette only. For this CD re-issue we have added a long bonus track not on the original album.
Etant Donnes is a French duo named after Marcel Duchamp's last major work. The group consists of brothers Marc and Eric Hurtado, born in Morocco and working mainly as performance artists and musicians. Their sound can be described as a mix of field recordings, found sounds and sometimes whispered, sometimes violent vocals. They describe their sounds like this: "Through Marc and Eric, it is the volume of each word that becomes an object-sculpture, together with the power of their bodies expressing their voices. Each event is a scream - indeed even the glissando - of the strength of the word that sometimes abruptly becomes a rock, a solid surface, not in the least fluvial, as is the narrative of a tale, novel or poetic epic. With both of them, there is no more trace of ancient prosodies, no more trace of the incomprehensible Sainte-Beuve who could claim: "I have to collect a volume of prose". The word, the voice, the volume take shape with each other, unveiling a theatre that theatre usually ignores, which has given it such things as a Samuel Beckett's Fin de Partie." Over the years Etant Donnes have collaborated with people like Lydia Lunch, Michael Gira, Alan Vega and Genesis P-Orridge. La Vue was the first ever recording, dating back to 1979 and originally issued on French Bain Total label (run by Philippe Fichot of Die Form). For this re-issue, the band has found a longer version than was previously available, so this is a unique chance to hear Etant Donnes in their earliest form in a version that has previously been unpublished.
This album, recorded in 1983, is also the music of a movie directed by Etant Donnés the same yearand titled “Le paradis blanc”. Mastering Norscq.
The album Le Paradis Blanc was recorded in 1983. This unreleased album until today is also the music of a film directed by Etant Donnés the same year.
The film and music were part of a three days installation and performance of Etant Donnés in the ELAC (Espace Lyonnais d’Art Contemporain) at the Fifth Symposium of Art Performance in Lyon in 1983 : one day for the construction of the installation, one day with a performance and one day for the destruction.
The film on the DVD is an edit made with the movies of the construction and the destruction of the installation.
This music like all first works of Etant Donnés was made without any instrument or effect but is the fruit of a long work on a raw sound material coming from nature field recordings and other source like TV, films, radio, streets, factorys, etc.
In 1977, Eric and Marc Hurtado founded Etant Donnés that quickly became essential in the field of experimental films, performance and experimental and industrial music, recording approximately 30 albums and counting numerous collaborations with major artists of the international music scene and cinema : Alan Vega, Genesis P.Orridge, Michael Gira, Lydia Lunch, Philippe Grandrieux, Mark Cunningham, Bachir Attar and the Master Musicians of Jajouka, etc.
First vinyl reissue originally released on CD in 1990 by Touch. “Through them, it is the volume of each word that becomes an “objectsculpture”.The word, the voice, the volume take shape with each other, unveiling a theatre that theatre usually ignores. In the power of voices and semantics, as well as in the severe body/mind combination, inseparable from each other, I find in Aurore a song of the bodies, indispensable to any sound values” Henri Chopin. Penultimate Press presents the first release in a threepart series based around the four fieldrecordingbased works made between 1990 and 1994 by the legendary French act Étant Donnés (brothers Eric and Marc Hurtado, born 1959 and 1962 respectively in Rabat, Morocco). Aurore opens the triptych and is made from ambient sounds collected like dew from nature. The gathered sounds were then used as a sound texture for the poems strewn among the field resulting in a single entity of arresting sound and text. Aurore is focused around an alchemical fire/water battle, this water which does not wet the hands. Aurore shares some convulsive movements that establish a link with Étant Donnés's earlier works, for instance that exuding scream, worthy of the one Artaud uttered in his legendary 1947 radio program Pour en finir avec le jugement de Dieu. Eric and Marc Hurtado succeed in achieving what many sages consider to be the very purpose of magical art: to create one's own ritual and, being one's own referent, to become a vibrating point in the cosmos and be receptacle for natural energy, in the heat of the sun in an attempt to merge with the Whole. Aurore comes remastered and repackaged in a highgloss sleeve with fully printed highgloss inner sleeve, in a limited edition of 500 copies. It remains an extreme and beautiful sonic journey sitting outside of time. “Listening to Aurore, our two actors' record, undoubtedly owing to the influence of the Mediterranean cradle, single umbilical cord of two great religions, the influence of both Latin and Arab worlds Gaelic short and long sounds can sometimes be perceived since their dictions are such a synthesis of several origins. Any true sound poetry is shattering, the really oral one is there in space, with the plus of the media machines, of the voices that slip through them, overwhelming them with the splendor of the bodies”. Henri Chopin
Royaume / Aimant + Aimant- is second in the three part reissue series focussing on the works of Etant Donnes based around field recording and voice. Run horse run Sting bee sting Fly fish fly Burn miracle burn How beautiful your eyes are when they look into the void Marc Hurtado Royaume (originally a CD on Touch, 1991) is made up of 4 tracks and is a kind of purifying travel through the four elements which symbolically refers to the light evoked by the colour green, an allegory of the grail and of the lightcarrier angel. As to the poems, they tend to amount to their essentials, as is the case in Matin which is both Taoist and surrealistic. Aimant + Aimant - (originally as a split 10”/CD on Danceteria,1992) presents itself as a magical alchemical mantra based upon the force of love, the force of life. Two pole like two bodies like two hearts like two magnets. “Like true buffoons from ultra - world, Eric and Marc Hurtado succeed in achieving what many sages consider to be the very purpose of magical art : to create one’s own ritual and, being one’s own referent, to become a vibrating point in the cosmos and be a receptacle for natural energy, like those bright patches or that black point recurring in their magical music, real poemspaintings and irremediably aiming, like an insect caught between the circle and the cross, in the heat of the sun in an attempt to merge with the Whole”. Stephane Duval Two pole like two bodies like two hearts like two magnets. The wind, the sea, the breath, the fire. Nothing more than nothing. Everything is in everything. Marc Hurtado