Deep+forest

Mike Sanchez and Eric Mouquet of Deep Forest have always been musical anthropologists, sampling the sounds of other cultures (Pygmy tribes of Cameroon, Gypsies of Eastern Europe, Cuban street musicians, to name just a few) and swirling them into their own ambient dance pop. On this 2002 release the French duo revisits some old samples and also brings in Turkish chant, Japanese pop, and Indian vocals. They introduce startling new elements as well: heavy electric guitars, many lyrics written in English, and a live drummer replacing the programmed rhythm tracks of their previous recordings.
Many of the lyrics here concern environmental issues and warn of the impending dangers of soullessness…

Deep Forest awash in the Pacific. There is certainly the flavour of that region, with Polynesian chanting and rhythms. However, unlike their other releases, Pacifique is a soundtrack to a movie rather than a stand-alone album.
For Pacifique, they've collected percussion samples and vocals from Samoan and other island cultures. The raw components are fairly good. The sampled voices on Pacifique form a nice melodic and rhythmic counterpoint to underlying percussion. La Legende (Part 2) provides similarly well blended vocals with a solid, if unextraordinary, rhythm and melodic line. And Huaine Reggae is a nice upbeat piece to close the album.

Innovatively fusing traditional ethnic musics with state-of-the-art rhythms, the work of Deep Forest was best typified by their 1993 smash "Sweet Lullaby," which brought together the contemporary sounds of ambient techno with a haunting traditional lullaby from the Solomon Islands…

Innovatively fusing traditional ethnic musics with state-of-the-art rhythms, the work of Deep Forest was best typified by their 1993 smash "Sweet Lullaby," which brought together the contemporary sounds of ambient techno with a haunting traditional lullaby from the Solomon Islands…

Innovatively fusing traditional ethnic musics with state-of-the-art rhythms, the work of Deep Forest was best typified by their 1993 smash "Sweet Lullaby," which brought together the contemporary sounds of ambient techno with a haunting traditional lullaby from the Solomon Islands…

Innovatively fusing traditional ethnic musics with state-of-the-art rhythms, the work of Deep Forest was best typified by their 1993 "Sweet Lullaby," which brought together the contemporary sounds of ambient techno with a haunting traditional lullaby from the Solomon Islands. The project was primarily the work of the French keyboardists and programmers Eric Mouquet and Michael Sanchez; after the latter returned from Africa with boxes of records he'd picked up across the continent, he and Mouquet began sampling the native sounds for use with their atmospheric dance tracks, and with the aid of producer Dan Lacksman, their eponymous debut LP appeared in 1993. Propelled by the international hit "Sweet Lullaby," Deep Forest was a surprise success; Mouquet and Sanchez soon began work on a follow-up, this time exploring such areas as Mongolia, India, and Hungary, recording several tracks with singer Marta Sebestyen…

Deep Forest is the first studio album by the musical group Deep Forest, consisting of French duo Eric Mouquet and Michel Sanchez. The album mixes New Age electronics with UNESCO field recordings of music from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Solomon Islands, Burundi, Tibesti, and the Sahel. Deep Forest was nominated for the Grammy Award as Best World Music Album in 1994. For Sanchez and Mouquet, the most important purpose of the album was to express their own fascination with the Efe people, and open the world's ears to the exquisite sound of a quickly vanishing culture. As Mouquet noted, "It's not very often you can hear a Pygmy singing on the radio."

Innovatively fusing traditional ethnic musics with state-of-the-art rhythms, the work of Deep Forest was best typified by their 1993 smash "Sweet Lullaby," which brought together the contemporary sounds of ambient techno with the haunting voices of the Pygmies of the central African rain forest…

Includes samples from "Istenem, Istenem" from the album "Music From Transylvania", Fonti Musicali Tradition du monde performed by Marta Sebestyen with the courtesy of Fonti Musicali and "A Recitative For Describing Loneliness" from the album "The Music Of Aborigines On Taiwan, The Songs Of The Yami Tribe Island, Vol. 3" with the courtesy of Wind Records.