Simple answer: I like both French existentialism and techno. So what better to do, than putting the two together.

The not so simple answer, however, began two months ago when Tan and I were sitting on our porch, drinking whiskey, and trying to come up with some niche-ass ideas for events. Tan was firing on all cylinders, propelling ideas at 100 miles an hour. But whatever he suggested, even if they were really good ideas or just some insane propositions, nothing really spoke to me. My mood soured and my shoulders dropped.

Leaning towards Tan on the rocking chair, my hands opened up to the sky as if paying, I said, "Tan, give me an event that I'd like to go! Like something that'd get me out of the house, something I'd buy a ticket for right now."

Tan took a pause like the infamous guru Osho, investing his imminent words with more importance and emphasis, and suggested, "what about German Existential Techno??!"

My arms flailing in the air, my eyes lit up, I yelled, "You got me! That's it. That’s it Tan. You are a genius!"

Fuelled with excitement, my body vibrating to existential techno, I left Tan on the porch, got on my bike, went to a Pep Rally event and danced to techno all night. It all made sense.

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But it's not German Existential Techno; it's French! So why? First, German and techno, when put together, become really loaded terms. Germany, especially Berlin, is known for its techno scene, its own brand of music, and grimy, underground environment. We wanted to make something new and light. Something we haven't heard before. French artists produce some great tracks, but they lack that kind of global recognition. So, the doors were fully open and we could take French Existential Techno whichever direction we wanted. Plus, French techno has a groovy vibe already. We like groovy.

Second, for French Existential Techno, we are mixing philosophy audio clips from interviews, book readings, and political rallies into techno beats. And when you mix mid-century German audio clips into any track, it always sounds like Hitler giving a speech at a Nazi convention. It's unfortunate but mid-century Germany ends up sounding a little Nazi. So, we didn’t want that obviously.

Yet more importantly, I like French existentialists much more than German existentialists. I think the French faces of existentialism are much cooler, much personable, and much more lively. The French existentialists were involved in social, political, philosophical, and artistic movements of their times. They were first and foremost great authors and artists. I might even go as far as saying, before philosophers they were literary figures who moved the hearts of people with their creative and fictional works.

Simone De Beauvoir, for example, was and still is a feminist icon. She is much more than just a philosopher. She has changed, forever, what it means to be a woman. She is one of my idols. Every time I read her work or watch her interviews, I feel goosebumps. Just seeing her elegant posture and hearing her striking and self-assured words, gets my thinking going.

Another French existentialist, Jean-Paul Sartre, as controversial of a figure he had been, always stood as a beacon of individual freedom and responsibility. Probably, he is the face of existentialism. He always challenged oppressive norms and the status quo of his times. His writings inspired people around the world who were committed to revolutionary, anti-fascists, and anti-colonial movements.

Then, of course, there is Albert Camus, the famous author of The Stranger. In the face of an absurd and violent world, Camus never gave up on his principals; he never gave up on the utmost importance of human life and happiness. Perhaps Camus, out of all other existentialists, has the purest of hearts. And how good looking and cool is he! It's impossible to not like him. Also, dying in a car crash at a young age bestowed him with James Dean infamy and mystery.

Then comes my guy, Maurice Merleau-Ponty. Not many know him, at least outside of academia, but whenever I read Merleau-Ponty, even in his thickest and most complex works, I hear the footsteps of a thinker who is dancing to the rhythm of his insights. Merleau-Ponty wanted to get in touch with the mystery of the world, not to merely know it but to live it, to feel it, and to dance with it. For him, reality was fundamentally flesh, sometimes soft and sometimes hard flesh, but nonetheless, flesh with beating hearts.

And lastly, though this list can go on and on, Frantz Fanon. Fanon took the insights of other existentialists and applied it to race and revolutionary struggle. He wrote to change the world and expressed what is feels to be a black man in a white man's world. And perhaps, he was the most hard-headed revolutionary of them all. For many years, he fought in Algeria to overthrow the French colonial powers.

These are the French existentialists. These are people who wrote at cafes until three in the morning, published periodicals, recruited resistance fighters, fought in the trenches with anonymous soldiers, and changed our understanding of what it is to be! But even though they have done so much for freedom and truth, they were not bogged down by seriousness. They learned to live lightly while writing and acting resolutely. They got drunk, did a lot of psychedelics, and danced their socks off at Parisian bars and clubs. They constantly struggled for freer and more beautiful ways of being. And all of them recognized that there is no such thing as a single individual. They all professed that our individuality is negotiated, gifted, and established through our relationships to others. They were colourful, powerful, and multi-faceted figures who wanted to understand and change the world at once.

So this is why French Existentialist Techno. We want to honour these great figures as we dance to the meaning of existence. Sometimes best thinking comes after dancing, when our bodies feel the rhythm of others and the world, when our bodies flow with others and merge with the world. We are fundamentally flesh incarnated one with the world. And nothing demonstrates that better than dancing, music, and community. If my years of reading these people taught me anything, that would be to dance to the music of existence while caring for the world and others. When we dance to the music of existence, even for a moment, we realize in our finitude and mortality, there is a speck of eternity. So dance with us. Come and enjoy yourself with us. Honour the people who came before us and taught the world how there are many ways to be free, and how truth is first and foremost lived rather than known.

D - 3/9/22