I Tell You

 

I was listening to the recently released (May 2014) Geins’t Naït & Laurent Petitgand - Je vous dis (I Tell You) & realized I should post up some of their early work. Geins’t Naït have been making great musick for nearly thirty years (with a nearly twenty year vacation in the midst, see below). Nowadays the duo's approach focuses on a sharpened sound with a rich balance, density, & impact. They utilize their own unique sensibilities for any element they include: a sample; a melody on the piano; the amazing works of voice; or the instrumentation that takes on a central role in the delicate balance of each title.
 

In the 1980s, Thierry Merrigout & Vincent Hachet were both students at L'école D'architecture de Nancy, France. They formed Geins't Näit in 1986. Although Hachet soon abandoned the project to pursue his directing career, Merrigout (ex-drummer for KAS Product) decided to continue on with the project & assumed the name Geins't Naït. In 1987 he enlisted the aid of Laurent Petitgand (also from Nancy), a talented composer & multi-instrumentalist. Laurent Petitgand, songwriter & performer, was well known for his theme music work with Wim Wenders (including Tokyo-Ga -1985 & Wings of Desire -1986) [more recently The Salt of the Earth - 2014]. The addition of Laurent’s refined musicality in post-industrial collage, adding guitar, piano, & other conventional instruments to Geins't Naït's more punk approach created their great style, inspired by the post industrial scene but also strongly influenced by Surrealists & Situationists

 

Between 1986 & 1993 they released six albums published with the collaboration of Permis de Construire & PDCD (Permis' Germany division) labels. In 1993, after the release of C / O Lisa, silence of almost 20 years. Then, in 2011, out of nowhere, Si J'avais Su, J'aurais Rien Dit (If I had Known, I Would have Said Nothing) was released in a limited run of only 500 copies. If anything, this & their latest disc demonstrates an increased chemistry between the two musicians whose paths may be very different outside this project yet here seem incredibly complementary.

Their earlier works echoed the adventurous music of the 80s & bands like Coil, Current 93, Test Dept., Einstürzende Neubauten, & Sprung Aus Den Wolken, enveloping elements of ambient & industrial as well as minimalism or repetitive music. "A work of the mind, complex, poetic and elegant, even in its darkest moments." Fascinating French post-industrial musick, deep & heavy with atmospheric & industrial experimentation. A tasty morsel for serious noise, sound texture, & experimental fans.

My favorite of their back catalogue:

 

Geins’t Naït – Yvone, Permis de Construire Deutschland PPP103, 1990.
decryption code in comments

Tracklist –

indian

he! you

ministre

mouche

microb

zlac.ac

tsé-sé

vaclav

finestre

yvone

platex

alcool

miao

medici

kivala?

AllA

verdi

-œ

Enjoy,

NØ