Deep Forest
Deep Forest is a French music project that originally began as a duo consisting of Michel Sanchez and Éric Mouquet.[2] They compose a style of world music, sometimes called ethnic electronica, mixing ethnic with electronic sounds and dance beats or chillout beats. Their sound has been described as an "ethno-introspective ambient world music".[3]
For other uses, see Deep Forest (disambiguation).
Deep Forest
They were nominated for a Grammy Award in 1994 for Best World Music Album,[4] and in 1995 they won the Award for the album Boheme.[5] The group also became World Music Awards Winner – French group with the highest 1995 world sales. Their albums have sold over 10 million copies. Sanchez started his own career as a singer in 2005, while Mouquet continued working under the band's original name.[1]
Music for films[edit]
In 1994, Deep Forest appeared on the soundtrack for Robert Altman's Prêt-à-Porter with the song "Martha".
Deep Forest was hired to provide a full original score for the 1995 movie Strange Days[9] and their credit appears on early advertising for the film. In the end, the score was instead composed by Graeme Revell. One cue from Deep Forest's original music remains in the film, titled "Coral Lounge". Deep Forest also teamed with Peter Gabriel to write an original song, "While the Earth Sleeps", for the film's end credits. In addition, two tracks from Deep Forest's album "Boheme" were featured in the film - "Anasthasia" and "Bohemian Ballet. The two new Deep Forest tracks, "Coral Lounge" and "While the Earth Sleeps", were included on the film's soundtrack album. The version of "While the Earth Sleeps" on the album is an edited version. The complete film version was released by Columbia as a CD single in Austria and Japan.
One of Deep Forest's songs, "Night Bird", was used in the 1996 film version of The Island of Dr. Moreau.
In December 2000, Deep Forest composed a soundtrack for the French film Le Prince du Pacifique. The album, entitled Pacifique, is a return to a more ambient and melancholy sound, with piano themes riding above moody synth textures, Pacific Island chants, scratchy synth-leads and electronic drumming.
In 2004 the duo composed a soundtrack for the Japanese film Kusa No Ran. A remix of "Sweet Lullaby" was also used for Matt Harding's viral hit "Where the Hell is Matt?"
Side projects[edit]
Both Sanchez and Mouquet have worked over a variety of side-projects and solo albums. Sanchez has two solo albums out and produced Wes successful debut album; while Mouquet created the group Dao Dezi, collaborated with Catherine Lara and arranged Thorgal, he composed and produced songs for Ana Torroja (Mecano), Jean Sebastien Lavoie, and composed and produced songs for Josh Groban.
Live performances[edit]
Deep Forest had their first live concert in 1996 at the G7 Summit in Lyon, France. They continued from there on to the Deep Forest '96 world tour. During the 1996 tour, Deep Forest performed a number of shows in France, Hungary, Greece, Australia, Japan, Poland and US. After the completion of Comparsa there was a '98 world tour. Since '98 there have been numerous live performances, including the Image Concerts, which took place in Japan. The concerts were based around the 'Image' album (similar to Pure Moods) and featured a number of famous Japanese artists, also including Deep Forest.
Donations[edit]
A percentage of proceeds from Deep Forest's debut album sales went to the Pygmy Fund, set up to aid the Democratic Republic of the Congo's Efe pygmies in the transition from nomadic to agrarian subsistence, and to provide appropriate health care. However, music of the Efe people was not included on the record, and so the musicians sampled on the record would not have benefited.[10] A portion of the proceeds from 'Boheme' go to the György Martin Foundation, which aids in protecting the Roma culture of Hungary. Deep Forest also actively supports the Sana Madagascar Association starting with 'Comparsa'. "The aim of the Sana Madagascar Association is to contribute protecting the environment, to collect instruments and precious recordings in order to allow the Malagasy man to save his culture, his nature and his traditional music."[11]
Controversy[edit]
The song "Freedom Cry" from the album Boheme caused controversy when it was revealed that the Hungarian Roma singer, Károly Rostás ("Huttyán"), never received any monetary compensation from the song, and neither did his family after he died in 1986. His singing, archived by Claude Flagel, was sampled by Deep Forest. Flagel allegedly paid Huttyán 1500 forints for the recording. The case was later documented in a movie entitled Huttyán, released in 1996.[12]
The relatives did succeed to some extent in getting compensation from Deep Forest.[13]
Deep Forest's signature song "Sweet Lullaby" centres on an uncredited recording of ancestral Baegu lullaby "Rorogwela", from Malaita, sung by a woman named Afunakwa, and recorded by ethnomusicologist Hugo Zemp. The recording was used without authorization from Afunakwa, Zemp, label UNESCO discs or distributor Auvidis, although Zemp had earlier reluctantly given oral permission for an unrelated recording to be used.[14] The Deep Forest project has since become a cause celèbre as an example of primitivist caricature and cultural appropriation.[15][16][17]
Influences[edit]
Mouquet was influenced by his interests in house and techno music.[3]