Etant Donnes — Les Cents Jours Clairs
Les Cents Jours Clairs is the next in the series of Etant Donnes CD reissues from the folks over at Klanggalerie. It was the French project's fifth release( well, half of it), appearing in the year 1984, taking nine tracks which move between pummelling/ manic electro/machine noise tracks, and slowly ‘n’ wavering grey tone ambience to billowing yet barren feedback dwells.
This reissue appears in a very sparse yet glossy black and white digipak. This features on its front cover an abundance of shimmering seascape. There is no background, explanation, or write-up, which, of course, helps to deepen the mystery and sonic puzzlement of the whole album.
The original release of the album was part of a two-C60 set entitled Cinq Portes Soudées / Les Cent Jours Clairs( translated to Five Welded Doors / The Hundred Clear Days). It appeared on the French label Bain Total in 1984, with the material dating from between 1982 and 1983.
Seven of the tracks here run between two and seven minutes mark, with two stretching on to around the thirteen to fifteen minutes. In its first half, we move from “Mi Jour-Mi Nuit” with its urgent blend of rapid spiralling reel tones, static buzzes/ rips, and suddenly cut-up dead air hums. Onto blunt knocking rhythms, purring to combing texture runs, and electro detail of “Chaque Nuit A Son Malheur (La Lune)”.
In its second half, we go from the brooding bass ambience meets cut-up/ sped-up breaking glass, clamouring noise tones, and gritty tape reel sound spools of “Son Sang Juge Cent Morts”. Onto rapid tone swish, sped-up vocal sounds, manically spinning textures of “Des Autres Terres Souples”. Finishing off with nearly ten minutes of “Music From The Film Des Autres Terres Souples Part 5” which switches between moments of bass brood/ noise reverberate purr, webs of rushing/ honking traffic, baying pitches, gritty tape reels/ melted voices, etc.
As a release, Les Cents Jours Clairs seesaws between the manic, noisy, and brooding- meaning it shifts between being a busy/crude proto-electronic release and a more abstract/ manic sound sculpting venture.