SOUNDS OF DEEP FOREST COMING TO S'PORE

BYL                     INE: By Rebecca Lim

BODY:
THEY were more concerned with the music. So much so that they thought of a name for themselves only when their debut album was to be released.

They took the title of one of the songs on the self-titled album and became known as Deep Forest.

Since then, the duo has become known for its blend of ambient dance and culturally-specific sounds -the music of the rainforest pygmies of Zaire and the Central African Republic in its first album in 1993, and Eastern European in last year's follow-up, Boheme.

The latter is perhaps best known for Marta's Song, which made it to the mainstream air waves more often than Sweet Lullaby, the single from the duo's first album.

The French combination of keyboardists Eric Mouquet and Michel Sanchez has also earned a Grammy nomination for Best World Music and collaborated with the guru of world music Peter Gabriel, on While The Earth Sleeps, for the soundtrack of Kathryn Bigelow's futuristic thriller Strange Days.

Boheme has just been re-released in Singapore with that song as a bonus track. The Strange Days soundtrack has been banned here.

And fans here might just be able to catch Deep Forest in a concert here at the end of this year if all goes well, Sanchez, 38, told Life! in a telephone interview from France.

The details are still being discussed, but the duo is keen to perform here when it begins its Asian tour in November, he said in English laden heavily with his French accent.

"For the show, we want to avoid using computers and sequencers. We want to play live like a band."

So the two men have lined up a group complete with a drummer, a bassist and a third keyboardist, three lead singers and two backup vocalists to fill out their act.

They have written "three or four" new songs to play in the show, along with pieces from their two albums.

A new album has been planned for the first half of next year. This time, Sanchez said, the focus will not be on any particular country.

"It is a surprise," he said, apologising repeatedly for his "bad English".

"We want to work around different countries in the world and try to find a common point," he added.

The common point between him and friend-cum-musical partner Mouquet is the desire to make music. They are not concerned about the commercial aspects of making records, although Deep Forest, the album, has sold more than two million copies worldwide.

Sanchez had known Mouquet, 35, for more than seven years, working in the studios in France, before they decided to join forces to make an album.

While Mouquet had "learnt music by himself", Sanchez was trained classically in the accordion, piano and classical organ. He attended the Conservatory of Paris for three years before "a very big lack of money" forced him to leave and take on "a lot of different jobs in music".

That was in the past and now, he sees it all as a blessing in disguise.

For the future, he added, he and Mouquet would like to collaborate with more artistes from different countries, "and to avoid so much sampling".

"It is important for us because we support really traditional music. We don't use recipes to make easy money."

Eric Mouquet (left) and Michel Sanchez.

LOAD-DATE: June 5, 1996