Deep Forest is an amazing and great world music project which was founded by a duo of French musicians, more specifically Éric Mouquet and Michel Sanchez. The duo was founded in 1992 and has been musically active to this day. Its music can be best described as world music infused with electronica or electronic music (including various beats, be them dance or chillout). In a nutshell, the main genre of music of this world music project is called ‘ethnic electronica’.
The official logo of the band. Image source: Commons Wikimedia
Throughout the decades, Deep Forest released 10 studio albums and sold 10 million copies of their records worldwide. The were first nominated for a Grammy Award in 1994 in the category Best World Music Album. One year later, in 1995, the duo won this award with the studio album ‘Boheme’. In 2005, Michel Sanchez separated from the duo in order to pursue his solo career. Éric Mouquet continued to perform under the Deep Forest moniker though and has been doing so to this very day.
The musical themes developed and explored in their music are linked to the folk music of various peoples in the world, ranging from Europe to Oceania. Deep Forest has also been associated with several charitable foundations aiming to protect and preserve the native cultures of some peoples in the world, from Europe to Africa.
Regarding the name of the band, French musician Éric Mouquet stated that it is a combination of Deep Purple, the legendary English hard rock band, and rain forest, thus resulting Deep Forest.
Aside from their studio albums, the duo also released one live album entitled ‘Made in Japan’ in 1999 which sold 150,000 copies, 2 soundtracks (one released in 2000 and the other in 2004) as well as two compilations (the first in 2003 and the second in 2004).
Below is a personal selection of my most favourite songs from their discography. I truly hope you will like listening to them. All the best!
Documentation sources and external links:
- The Wikipedia page of the project on www.wikipedia.org (in English)
- The official website of the project on www.deep-forest.fr
- The official website of Michel Sanchez on www.michelsanchez.com