Monday, June 3, 2002

Forest Power

Narendra Kusnur chats with Eric Mouquet of the popular music group Deep Forest

When you listen to Deep Forest’s music, you wonder why the world has so many geographical and cultural boundaries. For nine years, the band has been effortlessly blending global ethnic and folk sounds with modern rhythms.

Comprising French keyboardists and programmers Eric Mouquet and Michel Sanchez, Deep Forest is now ready with its new album Music Detected, which should be released in India by Sony Music soon. In an interview, Mouquet says: “We started work on this album three years ago, and have used our visits to India, Japan and the Far East as inspirations. We used many singers from the US, and Indian singer Mahalakshmi Iyer on the song India.”

According to Mouquet, this album has a fresh sound because they’ve used a lot of ’70s rock guitars. “We also used more acoustic drums, instead of synthesised rhythms. After playing for 10 years, it’s natural for our sound to evolve. In the first album, we had a lot of African sounds. But later, we began to incorporate other influences,” he says.

Deep Forest hit the big time in 1993 with their number Sweet Lullaby, which blended ambient techno sounds with voices of African pygmies. Their debut album thus had many African sounds, which they used after listening to many records that Sanchez bought on one of his visits to the continent.

Ever since, Deep Forest has released albums like Boheme, Comparsa and the live Made In Japan. “Wherever we go, we sample new types of music. Initially, we would compose together, but of late, we have begun composing separately, and then taking the best work,” he says.

Mouquet says that even as a listener, he always looks out for new sounds. “Whether it’s rock music, dance music or the ethnic music of different regions, I like being exposed to new things,” he explains.

Which of the Indian musicians does he really like? Mouquet replies: “I’ve heard many musicians, but if there was one person I’d like to work with, it’s Trilok Gurtu. I think he’s a very innovative percussionist.”

According to Mouquet, Deep Forest plans to go on a big world tour next year. “India is very high on our priority, and we plan to do some big shows there,” he says.

Well, we’ll wait for them.