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Section: ACTION: LATE BREAKING NEWS

Music House Nabs Sony Act For Exclusive Spot Representation.

New York--Sicurella & Associates, the commercial music house here headed by Joe Sicurella, has signed Sony ambient instrumentalists Deep Forest (a.k.a. composers Eric Mouquet and Michel Sanchez) for commercial representation.

The exclusive agreement allows for Sicurella to market material for commercials from the duo's latest release, Boheme. He left open the possibility of Deep Forest creating original music for advertising.

"The basic intent is to make available tracks off the new record," Sicurella said. "Advertisers now have an opportunity to license these tracks early on before the album becomes more exposed."

The idea was hatched by Deep Forest's management, who contacted Sicurella. Deep Forest's "Sweet Lullaby" was used in a spot for Sony Trinitron televisions and actually translated into increased record sales, Sicurella said. The video for the song, directed by Tarsem, also made it famous. Deep Forest's music has also appeared in a European L'Oreal spot.

"The Sony spot was a helpful way to promote the record and keep them out there in an interesting way, and gave them another avenue to explore," Sicurella said.

He also noted that Deep Forest's style, which blends percussive Indian sounding music, traditional tribal rhythms and highly technical ambient and dance grooves, is in vogue now among agencies and advertisers. Sicurella is currently fielding proposals from potential advertisers. He added that Deep Forest intends to be highly selective about the products and advertisers it grants licenses to.

"A lot of the future is going to be this kind of thing, with advertisers going directly to the artists," Sicurella said. "We see this as just the beginning."

Deep Forest is scoring director James Cameron's forthcoming feature Strange Days, to be released in the fall.

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By RAYMOND ECKE