Rachel Langlais

Limited to 100 copies in cardboard slipcase. Dothe is the first solo release from Rachel Langlais of the projects  Borja Flames and La Colonie De Vacances. Composed, played, recorded and mixed by Langlais, Dothe is an album that was built around two upright pianos, which she tuned and played with deft and subtle extended techniques. In line with John Cage and his prepared pianos, Rachel Langlais relies on this broad practice which consists in modifying the very nature of the sounds a piano makes by applying various materials directly onto the strings (paper, metal objects, pieces of wood, adhesive tape, plastic…). She completes her approach to the prepared piano with diverse recording and digital processing techniques (cut, slowdown) turning Dothe into a contemporary experiment.

The title was borrowed from Ursula K. Le Guin’s science-fiction novel The Left Hand of Darkness (1969), in which “dothe” is a nervous hysterical strength that can be controlled and that is practised by some inhabitants of a planet called Gethen. After using dothe, the body must take a rest called “thangen.”

A visual universe echoing the repetitive organic patterns that shape this album was conceived by graphic designer and silk-screen printer Damien Tran. Tran makes posters, animation short films, fanzines and art books. His work has been exhibited around Europe, the UK and the US. For Dothe, he imagined a back-to-front cover, credits thus appearing on the front with a choice of colours playing on harmonious and jarring associations, while the back cover is minimal, without any text.