Swiss-based multi-national collective Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp announced earlier this month the release of their sixth album. Entitled Ventre Unique, it follows their 2021 We’re Ok But We’re Lost Anyway and is due out on November 1st through Bongo Joe Records.
With an ever evolving line-up, including a rhythm section, percussion and string players, the group founded in Geneva in 2006 by double bass player and cultural activist Vincent Bertholet currently comprises 12 members. “This idea of changing line-ups is very important in the process of writing the music”, said Bertholet. “I always try to propose very simple ideas, which don’t require too much rehearsal to be played. The music must be simple so that whoever the musician is, it doesn’t change the sound of the band. It’s one of the key ideas behind the band and the compositions. We’re a collective force and individuals are not important.”
Impossible to be pigeonholed, with each member bringing a unique set of influences, Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp touch on everything from folk and krautrock to post-punk and African rhythms. Thematically, the upcoming Ventre Unique “seems to be one of people working out what they have in common”, as the press release release describes. “Miraculously, the group are able to tackle themes like these in a spirit of generosity, inspiring people to come together and dance – not to forget their troubles, but to forge a new commonality.”
Speaking about the album’s title, Bertholet commented:
“It comes from a sentence I sing in ‘Coagule’. Pour le moment, on coagule en un ventre unique, on s’agglomère autour d’un rêve commun” (which translates as “for the moment, we’re coagulating into a single womb, coalescing around a common dream.”). The idea is that we’re all the same, with all our differences. “We’re one, coming from Pachamama, also known as Mother Earth. Saying that, I feel it’s a bit cheesy, but it’s an important idea.”
Ahead of the album’s release, the collective have shared ‘Breath’, which serves as a first phenomenal taste of what’s coming. Take a listen below.