Étienne de CRÉCY

From punk bassist to sound engineer in Paris, and eventually the creator of some of the most sublime house melodies of the last thirty years, Étienne de Crécy is an artist in constant motion.

He’s best known, without a doubt, for the classic album Super Discount — a record that embodied everything chic, soulful, and forward-thinking about the rise of French Touch when it dropped in 1997. But Étienne de Crécy’s roots run deeper than Super Discount, and to this day, he continues to release phenomenal music, making him one of the rare legends of the French Touch who’s still touring, producing, and innovating as of 2023.

After playing bass in a punk band that, in his own words, “never really existed,” Étienne’s first steps in music came in the early 1990s when he landed a job as a sound engineer at the legendary +XXX studio in Paris. It was there — between coffee runs and studio tasks — that he met Philippe Zdar. The two would go on to form the duo Motorbass, inspired by Paris’ burgeoning rave scene.

Following international buzz from their debut EP in 1993, the duo released their full-length album Pansoul in 1996 — critically acclaimed and praised for its uniquely French, smooth, and elegant take on Chicago house. It became one of the very first French house albums to draw attention beyond France’s borders.

Today, Étienne remembers Pansoul for its creative freedom:
"We felt totally free," he says. "At the time, electronic music didn’t have such strict rules. Philippe Zdar had the idea: ‘Instead of doing a single or a double single, let’s make an album.’ And that was quite a novelty — making a full house album back then."

Super Discount, Étienne de Crécy’s solo yet collaborative project, was a critical and commercial success when it debuted in 1997. It spotlighted a wave of rising talent, including Air (whose first-ever track, Modulor Mix in 1995, was mixed and produced by Étienne) and Alex Gopher.

Released shortly after Daft Punk’s Homework, Super Discount showed the world that something very special was brewing in France. Its deep house, jazz, hip-hop, and reggae blend revealed a kaleidoscopic talent.
"I’m really proud of Super Discount," Étienne says. "And maybe it’s the variety of that album that defines French Touch. Because French Touch isn’t really a sound. If you listen to Air and Daft Punk — people said it was French Touch — but their music is very different."

In 2000, Étienne released Tempovision, an album that broke away from the Super Discount format to explore a more introspective, soulful form of electronica, suited both for home listening and thoughtful dancing. The single Am I Wrong reached number 44 in the UK charts.

"After Tempovision, French Touch collapsed," Étienne recalls. "I had to start again from scratch." This reset came with Super Discount 2 in 2004, a return to his early methods, featuring Philippe Zdar, Boombass, Alex Gopher, and DJ Mehdi — but this time with a more acidic, sample-free sound aligned with the new wave of French producers influenced by Ed Banger and the rising Electroclash movement.

"Some DJ friends told me: 'I didn’t listen to Super Discount 2 because I thought it was just another French Touch album!’" Étienne laughs. "But the younger crowd listened to it — the ones discovering music through Electroclash knew this album."

In the years that followed, Étienne released a series of impeccable EPs — including the raw, punk-tinged Commercial series — before returning to Super Discount in 2015 with Volume 3. This project featured a stronger vocal influence, showing a new side of his artistry, while maintaining the visual identity of the original series. Collaborators included Kilo Kish, De La Soul, and Madeline Follin from Cults, a lineup reflecting his international reach.

Super Discount 3 also introduced Baxter Dury into Étienne’s creative orbit, with the British singer lending his voice to the track Family. This collaboration would bear fruit again in 2018 when Étienne de Crécy, Dury, and Delilah Holliday formed B.E.D, releasing a self-titled album blending electro-pop, soul, house, and punk.

Between those projects, Étienne released the After EP series — four collections of pristine, progressive house-inspired electronic music.
"I was really moved by those cheap chords and sounds," he explains. "They remind me of the emotion you feel during a rave — where the music is both romantic and kitschy. Guilty pleasures."

Beyond his refined musical sense, his records also stand out for their captivating visual aesthetic, reflecting an artist who values both sound and presentation.
"The visuals are very important to me," he says. "Over the years, I’ve tried to keep a coherent design line. With music, I love to be influenced and evolve — but for design, I prefer consistency."

Étienne de Crécy is also highly regarded as a live performer, having pushed the boundaries of electronic music with his Super Discount, Space Echo, and Beats 'n' Cubes tours. These shows are built as immersive audiovisual experiences: Beats 'n' Cubes, for example, combined dazzling stage architecture — six meters of glowing cubes — with a set of overwhelming intensity.

Alongside his studio projects, Étienne has maintained a long and successful career as a DJ, with his funky, exploratory sets in demand from Barcelona to Mexico City, making him one of the most enduring DJs to come out of the French Touch movement.

And he’s far from done. In 2023, Étienne de Crécy is preparing something very special — with surprises still in store.

After all these years of innovation, emotion, and dancefloor magic, Étienne says he’s "still a huge fan of electronic music."
"As a DJ, I have to constantly find new music. And every week, I discover a new track, a new sound, a new style," he concludes. "It’s incredible."
We could say the same about his career.