Posts Tagged ‘Deep Forest’

Eric Mouquet, the Deep Forest veteran, has posted a 5 minute long prelisten to his upcoming album Deep Africa. It has now been made available on Deep-Projects.com.  

From what I can hear the album will be closer to the World genre than new age music – with plenty of African singing (and not just samples as in the classical Deep Forest albums). But, as with Deep Brasil, there are segments that are obviously very true to the old Deep Forest sound too – so new age music fans have a lot to look forward to here.

As always, Eric Mouquet is expected to give his fans a treasure chest of ethnical sounds – just like he has on his previous albums.

Be sure to visit mr. Mouquet’s Facebook page too.

After some downtime and work behind the scenes, the new homepage of Deep Projects is now completed and ready for the release of the Deep Africa album in April. Eric Mouquet, the Deep Forest veteran, has done the design himself. On the page he gives his fans an exclusive presentation of his many musical projects, the last being the song Namba le Ndamba with singers from Cameroon (which, by the way, is not a part of the Deep Africa album).

One song is now available from the upcoming Deep China album, the “Won’t last long” track, with the Chinese singer Sa Dingding. It truly is a wonderful song.

In other news, Eric Mouquet will be performing live in Paris with South African singer songwriter Johnny Clegg. Mr. Clegg has been a record artist for over thirty years, and will this spring be releasing a new album on the Universal label. One of the topics for the concert is Eric’s short film project : “Soccer made in Africa”. Tickets for the concert is now available.  

So do visit Deep-projects.com

In preparation for the release of Deep Africa in April, the homepage of Deep Projects have been redesigned. Here Eric Mouquet, the Deep Forest veteran, gives you a presentation of his music and the many projects he have been involved in.

Some parts of the page are still under construction, but already there is plenty to look at.  A few texts are in French, but a link to Google Translate is provided.

The perhaps most interesting new age music project around is Eric Mouquet’s Deep Projects.

Mr. Mouquet, the Deep Forest veteran, last year released the magnificent album Deep Brasil (review here), which gave new life to the no. 1 hit Sweet Lullaby and contained several new favorites as well. No wonder it was voted one of the best new age albums of 2008.

And now to some breaking news; the next installment in the project, Deep Africa, will be released in April! Little is known about the new album – but it will for sure be yet another fine ethnic fusion release from Eric Mouquet.

The web page deep-projects.com has received a face lift. The black background is gone, replaced by a fading blue color. As of now, the music shop and the blog are down – but visitors get a nice album art presentation of earlier music projects by Eric Mouquet.

2010 is looking out to be a great year for Deep Projects/Deep Forest fans! An album called Deep China will be released at a later date.

I hold Eric Mouquet of Deep Forest/Deep Projects to be the finest Ethnic Fusion artist ever - and he is one of the few major label new age artists that debuted in the 1990s. He is also an outstanding pianist. But don’t take my word for it, let the 10+ million albums sold, or the 20+ million Youtube playbacks of Sweet Lullaby speak for themselves. Like Mike Oldfield he has not been that successful in the US, but he is loved both in Europe and in Asia (especially Japan). I also feel that his current Deep Project, with last year’s release of Deep Brasil (our review here), is truly inspiring.

Another thing that makes Eric Mouquet great is his ability to make live shows out of sequenced music, much like J. M. Jarre (but with a much smaller laser show mind you). Below are three freshly uploaded Youtube videos from Eric’s show “Live in Ebisu”, Tokyo 2009 on July 20th, available in HD-quality. Awesome!

I am usually not a big fan of remixes, but for Deep Forest’s Sweet Lullaby I am ready to make an exception. On this album, released in 2007, you will find nothing less than 16 remixes of Sweet Lullaby. The original track is ethnic fusion as its very best, with voice samples from the Pygmies of the central African rain forest.

The remixes are quite varied in style, from ambient to rich, deep synths. Some of them may be too much trance or electronica for some tastes, but it gives variation to the album. And variation is the key when the same song is repeated 16 times. The DJs behind the remixes are Paul Kwitek, Jeff Belfi, Tim Davison and Elektroheadz, among others. And they are all long, from 4 to 9 minutes in length.

I absolutely love track number two, Roman Rai’s remix. It is a perfect arrangement of the synth lines we know from the original song, adding new material here and there. It could easily been on Deep Forest’s World Mix (1994), which, by the way, was released with two remixes of the song. So remixes of this song is nothing new. Also the Leron & Yves Eaux chill mix is great, with an interesting reverb effect of the well known voice samples.

This collection is a must have for any Deep Forest fan, or for anyone who wants the biggest pack of sweet lullabies available. It will for sure give you lots of sweet dreams. 

You can sample the album here.

Eric Mouquet, known for Deep Forest (and the more recent Deep Projects), has been in studio with Josh Groban. They have recorded three songs together. As of writing there is not much to tell about these songs, but Eric and Josh have uploaded a video to Youtube where they tell a little about how they work.

I am looking forward to the result, and I am sure you do too. Josh Groban’s music is strictly speaking not new age, and I know that he is not too positive about being labeled as new age either. But he has worked with several top new age producers in the past, like Rolf Lovland/Secret Garden (most famous song: You Raise me up) and now the one and only Eric Mouquet.

One thing is certain: these songs will be great!

Back in the jungle: Music can take you places far far away by just pressing the play button. The new album from Eric Mouquet of Deep Forest is a good example of this; it is like a one way ticket to the Amazonas. In a way it is the first return to the style of Deep Forest’s ground breaking album titled Deep Forest – with the smash hit Sweet Lullaby – since Deep Forest’s more recent albums didn’t focus directly on the forest and jungle, but more “open spaces” in Eastern Europe (Boheme), South America (Comparsa) and the Pacific (Pacifique, of course). But with Deep Brasil Eric Mouquet takes us into the warm and damp forest once more, to experience the nature and the people. And wow, what a journey it is!

The album is formed by the vocals of Flávio Dell’Isola and Michel Villain, perhaps making Deep Brasil more of a world album than a new age album. But I feel that the vocals make the album more authentic. And yes, there are plenty of typical new age samples here. Remember that Deep Forest almost invented this kind of sample use. And Eric Mouquet is still the king in this respect.

Deep Brazil consists of 14 songs, 55 minutes and 44 seconds all together. The opening track, Amazonia, is simply incredible. The opening synth, the rich pads and forest sounds are a perfect mix. It is as good as Deep Forest ever was. Flávio Dell’Isola’s vocal is great here, and the child voice samples in the end are really tasteful. And the piano at the very end, which perhaps can be called this album’s theme, is sooo beautiful. Track 2, Terra de Indio part one, is a world song with a nice vocal. You can hear the trademark of Deep Forest during the first 10 seconds of the song, and in the end. Track 3, Fazenda, starts with an intense but nice reverb effect. Again the vocals are good, and the arrangement is also first class. There are some happy conversation samples in the end.

Track 4 is titled Cedu do Brasil is also a very nice song, with a powerful melody. Africa Brasil, track 5, is fast and playful. The accordion has almost a Lambada-like feel to it. The African women singing in the background is a good effect, giving life to the African aspects of the song. Track 6, Minas Nascimento, and track 7, Pe De Flor, is more world style. Again the vocal is fantastic.

The songs Goiano, Terra De Indio part 2 and Cerradao (track 8, 9 and 10) are as good as any Deep Forest songs ever was, both in sound and melody. Cerradao contains a cacophony of blowing instruments in the end, which is kinda intense but nice.

And then, lo and behold, the moment we all have been waiting for: Sweet Lullaby Brazilian version! (track 12) I must confess that this was the first song I played when I got the album. The arrangement is light and soothing, like a real lullaby. The synths in the beginning are just right, and the following piano and guitar part is soft jazz at its best. The well known Sweet Lullaby theme has also made a comeback, fresh as a rain drop on a jungle leaf. Wow!

Track 13, Virtual Forest, is the only instrumental track on the album (well, almost instrumental. There are some whisperings here). The intro is a little bit eerie, but that’s ok; all deep forests can be spooky sometimes. But then the album’s piano theme is back, more beautiful than ever.

The last track, Pimenta Do Tempero, is light and a very good completion of the album. All in all Deep Brasil is an incredible album. At the end of the year I will not be surprised to find this album on my top 5 list of 2008. Perhaps at the very top. If I get out of the Brazilian jungle before the new year, that is.

//btfas

You can sample and buy the album on Deep Projects.