Ventre Unique
Something's afoot in Geneva, known today as home to a multitude of international organisations, but also an urban entity in and of itself, a city that looks back on a once thriving "punk history and squat scene." It is from this 'go against the grain' spirit that Vincent Bertholet (Hyperculte, Yalla Miku) conceived the ever-evolving Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp (OTPMD) back in 2006 and later founded the Bongo Joe Records imprint and record store alongside Cyril Yeterian (of Cyril Cyril fame), which has been making waves far beyond Lake Geneva since 2015. Bongo Joe is also the label to release OTPMD's latest oeuvre "Ventre Unique" – aka album number six – which brings listeners a resplendent patchwork of sounds and atmospheres tied together by a common thread: an innate urge to see the big picture and embark on a joint "dynamic exploration" of "contemporary anxieties" that finds the group seamlessly blending "folk, krautrock, post-punk, and African rhythms, delivering an emotionally charged yet exuberant listening experience."
But we're galloping ahead, so let's retrace our steps: The follow-up to the group's 2021-released longplayer "We're Ok But We're Lost Anyway" – facing a Covid-ridden world in disarray – "Ventre Unique" proposes an alternate approach, that "of people working out what they have in common" and "sharing human experiences." This latest album by the Swiss collective is based on the understanding that beneath all our differences, we can still agree to disagree: "We're one. Coming from Pachamama, also known as Mother Earth." says Vincent Bertholet. "Saying that, I feel it's a bit cheesy, but it's an important idea." Recorded over the course of ten days in a studio on the outskirts of Paris and overseen by Johannes Buff (who also mixed the album's aforementioned predecessor), the orchestra quite literally joined forces to bring another musical vision to fruition, creating what might be described as organised chaos. But the roots go deeper and so do the intricately spontaneous arrangements, verging on the naive yet revealing soaring musicality, complex simplicity and sheer audacity.
"Ventre Unique" is a double entendre in the sense that you're going to want to listen to it again and again until you're sure that you've come to terms with every single 'virage' it throws at you, but also a reminder that we are all in this 'ventre' together; in a belly, in a belly, in a belly, in a belly... You get the gist. Hey buddy, why so serious? Look how amazing all these 'differences' can sound when 'rassembled' this way. Sky's the limit. As for Geneva's OTPMD, the future is looking bright. Giddy up!
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