DJ Etienne de Crécy launches ‘French Touch’ Cognac

The house DJ who defined the ‘French Touch’ genre along with artists like Daft Punk and Cassius has teamed up with Martell to launch a limited edition Cognac label.

Etienne de Crécy, known for his Super Discount series, is one of the seminal figures in the French Touch house scene which emerged in the 1980s and 90s (Photo: Martell)

The limited edition La French Touch was launched by the Pernod Ricard-owned Cognac house at the Wellington Private Members Club, in Knightsbridge, where de Crécy performed an exclusive DJ set.

Created to appeal to the younger demographic, La French Touch was designed by de Crécy and features Martell’s traditional blue, neon lights represented by UV ink – which glows in the dark to be more visible in a nightclub setting –and the iconic modules of the French Touch.

La French Touch is available in Martell VS, Martell VSOP and Martell Noblige expressions.

“For this bottle I needed a dark, deep and dense background, in order to get the neons to vibrate,” de Crécy said of the bottle design.

“The famous Martell blue seemed the obvious choice. Especially as the colour also symbolises night-time, with all its electricity and its attractions.

“Designing, producing, and putting a bottle of Martell under the spotlights – there’s something both elegant and exciting about that.”

Martell’s La French Touch VSOP features a design which uses neon ink which glows in the dark to be more visible in a nightclub setting (Photo: Martell)

“The French Touch and Martell have been cultivating the same quest for quality and the same desire to show the world this French Art de Vivre celebrated for 300 years by the oldest of the great Cognac houses,” added Martell global brand director Quentin Meurisse.

The French Touch movement in house music emerged during the summer of 1987, through a series of parties organised in France by such artists as Daft Punk, Cassius and Etienne de Crécy.

The term entered common language in 1996 after British music journalist Martin James used it in his review of the first Super Discount EP by de Crecy.

De Crécy launched his Super Discount project in 1995. A second Super Discount compilation was released in 2005 while the third part of the trilogy was released in January this year.

In 2008, de Crécy launches Beats’n’Cubes, a piece of performance art devised by the Exyzt collective – a light and sound installation which he toured around the world for more than five years. The cube theme is referenced in the design of the French Touch Cognac label.

In his live performances, de Crécy has always been a pioneer, producing highly conceptualised sound and visual performances.

https://youtu.be/Pjj-RIfYAu8