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On 17 May 1998, in the French newspaper Libération, Didier Lestrade reviewed “Suicide Sūtra”,
the debut album of the duo Sūtra, consisting of Thomas Bourdeau and Patrick Vidal:
“Perhaps the most intelligent album of the new French wave. Because it mixes house influences
and pop neurosis, [...] Sūtra offers a truly raw poetry in its lyrics, an undeniable musical
generosity (they don’t stick to one style [...], no, they truly innovate).” Further on, the journalist is
annoyed: “Isn’t it incredible that Sūtra is signed abroad? [...] Truly, truly, truly the album of the
month.”
Patrick Vidal started out as the lead singer of Marie et les Garçons, a Lyon-based no wave punk
band from the late 1970s. The group had a single produced by John Cale, then recorded a
hybrid rock-dance music album in New York with underground disco legends, which
foreshadowed the Madchester sound. Vidal became a DJ in the 1980s, first as a resident at Les
Bains Douches, then a pillar of the Parisian club scene. Thomas Bourdeau, on the other hand,
started as the bassist of the Nantes-based rock band Les Claques de Velours, which he
founded in 1989. He approached Vidal a year later at a concert of the latter at the Rex Club, to
suggest making music together. Sūtra was born of this encounter.
Released on the London-based label Other, “Suicide Sūtra” is barely mentioned in the history of
French touch and was mainly supported by the British music press. “Tricky Situation”, the single
extracted from it, was reviewed by The Face, which praised it as “brilliantly funky French disco”,
while DJ Mag certified it as “for the ‘proper‘ house music lovers”. Muzik dubbed Patrick Vidal
“godfather of French house”...
Mirwais, a former member of the band Taxi Girl then at the bottom of his career, produced,
programmed and mixed the album. On this occasion, he practiced his house and disco skills,
thanks to the loops and samples brought by the duo. In France, few had the chance to listen to
the radical and avant-garde result of this unique collaboration, and Sūtra has not become a
prophet in its own country. Mirwais, on the other hand, bounced back by producing his album
“Production”, then Madonna’s single “Music”, which relaunched the “Queen of Pop’s” career, as
well as the two albums that follow.
On the eve of the 2000s, Sūtra embarked on the composition and production of a second
album, soberly entitled “2”, with the help of Stan Loubières who programmed and mixed. For the
visuals, the band remained faithful to the creators of the first album cover: photographer Alé de
Nicolaï, and graphic designers Laurent Fétis and Gilles Beaujard. This largely unreleased album
is now finally available in a remastered version, on the Micronautics label.
