Nightvisions

Marie-Pascale Hardy is a Quebec-born, France-based singer-songwriter, poet and artist. Previously one half of experimental lo-fi duo Paco Sala on Night School and Digitalis, she has since shifted her focus onto solo productions and poetry. Debuting on Doyenne is her latest moniker / personality, Alonē Etimis for her new EP,NIGHTVISIONSrecorded over a 18-month isolation period in an ancient stone stable in the mountains in the South of France. The writing process of the four-track EP draws from the idea of 'alchemical transmutation', channelling her personal ancestral lineage through to humanity as a collective body: 'Putrefaction. Purification.Rebis.'

A demonstration of uncompromising authenticity, NIGHTVISIONS constitutes a disparate yet coherent collection of recordings, revealing various angles of Etimis' psyche. The works range from folk to concrete music with the odd trance beats, and is threaded with lines excerpted from the accompanying poetry collection 'IAMNOWHERENEARETERNAL'. The EP ends on a symmetrical note where the soundscape of the opening piece emerges again, creating the impression of an infinite loop, seemingly in contradiction with the title of the track. 'I am nowhere near eternal', she sings, 'Everything will turn sour / Everything will turn to dust'. The obsessive repetition of these lines, sung to the top of the lungs, acts as clin d'oeil to the section on the Nine Charnel-ground Observations of Buddha's Great Discourse on the Establishing of Awareness. Her voice, as ethereal as ever, exposes here the full spectrum of her capacity, ranging from ecstatic arabesques to unsettling howling laments.