DATNA ÉCLAT

The French word “éclat” assumes various meanings depending on its context, but in a sense, they are all related: Éclat not only denotes scandal, but also grandeur, splendor, brightness, and bang. This riotous pattern of shimmering potential constitutes the guiding principle underlying the multisensory spectacle that is Tina Frank’s music video. DATNA ÉCLAT is the full title of the sound composition by General Magic that serves as a touchstone for the video's attention-grabbing color and word play. Initially the two words stand austerely in a limited palette of Suprematist black, white, and red—a color scheme home to post-punk, gothic, and cold wave bands of the late 1970s. But in Frank's DATNA ÉCLAT the music provides a potent contrast. Piano riffs and a darkly rumbling electronic beat jumble the letters. The resulting flurry of new combinations, distortions, and endless anagrammatic combinations are accompanied by what is a magnetically raw dance music. Meanwhile the shifting colors are blissfully reminiscent of Wada Sanzō's Dictionary of Color Combinations and his principles from the 1930s regarding heightened perception stimulated by unusual color combinations, just like the soundtrack which repeatedly accompanies optical streaks across the letters: The sounds multiply and alter the atmosphere. And they find a visual echo in the crossbars of the A's and E's and T's and L's, dividing the screen into agitating segments challenging our impulse to recognize meaningful word combinations while breaking them down to create a state of undiluted ambience. (Melanie Letschnig)

Translation: Eve Heller