Leader of the French electronic music scene, Ludovic Navaher (also known as Saint-Germain)’s fusions of jazz, African rhythms, and dance beats Dance beats have earned him a huge reputation in the world. Saint-Germain's second album "The Tourist" became a hit around the world and successfully established the "French Touch" movement on the world music map.
Lüdovic-Navah was born in the early seventies, the son of an interior decorator. He grew up in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, a suburb of Paris. Ludovic's biggest interest as a child was sports. The young boy spent all his free time sailing, windsurfing and in-line skating. However, Ludovic's sports career ended prematurely due to a serious motorcycle accident when he was fourteen years old. The accident left him bedridden for two years. It was during that period of physical recovery that Ludovic discovered the joy of using computer programs. The teenager's computer skills were enough to help him succeed in his DJ career in the early 1980s. Inspired by the house music emerging in Chicago and Detroit at the time, Ludovic locked himself in the studio and concentrated on creation, and began to try to create mixed electronic music on his computer and electronic equipment. At the same time, Ludovic acquired an astonishing musical literacy by listening to a lot of blues, reggae, and later soul, jazz, and hip hop music in his teenage years. His encyclopedic knowledge of music laid a solid foundation for the comprehensive works he created later in his musical career.
House music made at home When Ludovic first started working in the DJ industry, it was actually house music that made him famous. In the early 1990s, he locked himself in the studio of his mother's house in Versailles, retreating from the world and concentrating on creating: turntable whizzkid and house were innovatively mixed together to achieve an exquisite hybrid sound. . Starting in 1991, Ludovic released his works under various stage names. His previous names include: Sub System, Deepside (Ludovic used this stage name for an album he produced with his friend Guy Leibler***). After that, he began to use a series of new Stage names like: Modus Vivendi, Soofle (a duet with Schatz) and DS. But no matter what name he hides behind, the style of his work has never changed - his electronic hybrid sounds are always looking for new inspiration and advantages, soaked in the ambient music from Detroit, Influenced by New York's garage music and the essence of Chicago house beats. After a period of changing stage names, Ludovic finally chose "Saint Germain". In 1993, he released his first single "French Trax" under the name Saint Germain. This new stage name cleverly combines the name of Ludovic's hometown (Saint-Germain-en-Laye) with the Count of Saint-Germain (a court figure in France during the Louis XV era who was notorious for his loopholes in lies). Together.
Boulevard Saint-Germain established himself in the nascent stage of the French electronic music scene with his first album "Boulevard". The album was released in July 1995 and was produced by Lauren Garnier's independent company F. Communications. Once this exquisite mix album was released, it not only caused a commotion in the French jazz scene, but also became popular in the electronic music scene. "Boulevard" breaks the boundaries between jazz and electronic beats. In fact, "The Avenue" was a huge hit around the world. Even in America, the heartland of electronic music. The album's total sales reached an astonishing two hundred thousand copies. It was unanimously voted the UK's best dance album of the year.
"The Avenue" was even nominated for a British Dance Award, along with Michael Jackson! Following the huge success of their album on the charts, Saint-Germain performed live for the first time in December 1995 at the prestigious Rennes International Music Festival. While his reputation in the electronic music world was growing day by day, invitations from all over the world came to him like a snowflake. Saint-Germain's remixes span a wide range of artists, including Bj?rk (1995), French contemporary composer Pierre-Henri (1997), and Cape Verdean star Boy Ge Mendes (1998)
The strange thing about music tours is that as Saint-Germain's name becomes more and more famous in the electronic music scene, he spends less and less time in the studio for his own music. Aside from his remix work, the French remix maestro would not release a follow-up to Avenue for another five years. Ludovic was very uneasy about his growing reputation and troubled by the fact that his music was simply positioned within the scope of electronic music. He once toyed with the idea of ??giving up the stage name Saint-Germain, or even his music career. After a sudden and major change, Ludovic understood that what was missing in his music was an element of hybrid music. This inspired his subsequent career development. Eager to collaborate with other artists and jointly explore new frontiers of music, Saint-Germain decided to terminate his contract with F.Com, a company famous for producing electronic music, and signed a contract with Blue Note, a company famous for its legendary jazz reputation. )company. This brought a turning point in his music career. His blended musical strengths have been brought to full display in collaborations with some real musicians like Senegalese superstar Idrissa Diop and Jamaican guitarist Ernest Longoning. When Saint-Germain's second album, titled Tourist, was released in April 2000, the French remix maestro set the world on fire with his unparalleled mixes of house jazz, reggae and Afrobeats. storm. Facts have proved that the sales performance of "Tourist" is even more successful than "Avenue". After the successful launch of a single called "Rose Red", the sales of "Tourist" soared like a rocket, breaking through 20 in France. The fifty thousand mark. But that's still nothing to say about worldwide sales. "The Tourist" was released worldwide in September 2000. As of the summer of 2001, its sales had risen to 1.5 million copies! Following the astonishing success of The Tourist, Saint-Germain was inundated with concert invitations from all over the world. He spent most of the second half of 2000 traveling the world. After concluding his European tour in London on October 20, 2000, the world-class turntable king completed his final stop at the Olympia in Paris on November 9. St. Germain will return to Olympia to perform again on April 6, 2001. This would be his last performance before heading off to conquer dance floors across America, Asia and New Zealand. At the same time, praise from music critics was pouring in for Saint-Germain. On February 17, 2001, Saint-Germain was also nominated for the "Victory of Music" award in the category Saine. The mixing wizard finally walked away with three awards: "Best New Jazz Artist of the Year", "Best Electronic Album" and "Best Live Performance of the Year". Saint-Germain had a busy schedule throughout the summer of 2001, performing at Europe's top music events, including the Nice Jazz Festival, the Swiss Palio Music Festival, and the "Les Vieilles Charrues" music festival. and the Fourvière Festival in Lyon. At the end of August 2002, Saint-Germain played the last of his 260 shows in London's Hyde Park. Two years after the release of his second album "The Tourist", its sales reached 600,000 copies in France alone and up to 2 million copies worldwide.
September 2002
In the 18th century, there was an amazing figure named Saint Germain in the court of King Louis XV of France. He claimed to be hundreds of years old. And in the 21st century Today, at the beginning of the century, the man we are talking about is equally unusual, but he is only 30 years old, and he is neither a liar nor an aristocrat, but an artist. He is Ludovic Nawach, also known as Holy Sun. Mann. As the pioneer of "French Touch", a new type of electronic music produced in France, Ludovic has undoubtedly become a well-respected celebrity in the international music industry. Without Ludovic, 'Daft Punk' ) and 'Air and Dimitri' (Air and Dimitri'), groups from Paris, may still be performing in the backwoods of France.
His album 'Avenue', released in July 1995 ' has sold more than 200,000 copies and has become a classic. The album was elected "British Album of the Year" and was nominated for the "London Dance Awards". He was also nominated for the award by singers Goldie, d'Angelo and Michael Jackson. Not bad for a "weird little French artist" to achieve such results in the UK. Since then, our hero Ludo has made a name for himself with his electronic remixes of "Cape Verdean Boy Ge Mendes", "Synthesis" and "Historic Pierre-Henri".
But Ludovic does not value honors, bonuses and other academy awards. For a conservative and taciturn resident of the Paris suburbs, there was nothing better than being in his studio playing with his demos and instruments. That was as early as 1991, when he created his signature music--fusion music. This is a kind of music that combines techno with jazz, blues, love music, house and dub mixes. This is not a simple and hasty commercial sound puzzle, but a long-term, mature mixture, a music that combines electronic equipment and instruments, traditional and modern music.
When Ludovic was singing for an older black blues singer (like the now famous Alabama Blues) when it first appeared in 1995, there were a lot of imitators - for example, When Moby (Moby's latest project) records demos, he has the rigorous and critical attitude of a devoted Lightnin' Hopkins fan, or admirer of black music. Ludovic listened to Bob Marley, Toots, the Maytals, and Miles Davis, Koo, and I grew up listening to the songs of the Gang.
His entry into the music industry was purely coincidental. Early on, our bedroom composer's dream was to break into the world of sports. In adolescence, Ludovic's passion for sailing, windsurfing, and skiing was shattered by an accident. Therefore, he had to change his career and become a computer fan, and occasionally attended some parties as a DJ. Together with his friend Guy Leibler, Ludovic composed his first song "Sub System". Even then, his primary concern was to differentiate his music from that of others. "At that time, almost everyone was setting the rhythm of techno to 150 beats per minute (150 bpm), which almost became an invariable rule. Therefore, I started to try to make everything slower..."
He has released several EPs under a series of different stage names. His stage names include: Deep Side, Soofle, Modus Vivendi, LN's, Nuages, D.S. But he soon gave up the pure techno style and turned to a more melancholic and sensual music form.
Since then, an emerging bright spot has joined the New York/Chicago/Detroit axis that distinguishes Parisian style.
However, Ludovic never bothered with which genre his music was labeled as. Even if he feels that techno has been dominated and influenced by the output of the industry and swayed by some demagogues and music critics, Ludovic will not be troubled by this. He put all his energy into realizing his own dream. His dream is to record more collaborations with other musicians, as he did at the Rennes International Music Festival in 1995 and the Burgos Spring Festival the following year. He added elements of jazz to his music. After his first album "The Avenue", Saint-Germain devoted all his energy to the Saint-Germain project, with Pascal Osser as the trumpet player in the band, and Eduard- Rab was the saxophonist and flautist, Alessandro Deshay was the keyboardist, and Edmundo Canillo was the drummer. "I'm not really a musician," Ludo said modestly, "I'm just good at playing with the mouse. After the album "The Avenue", I actually thought about giving up my music career. I felt like I had done everything wrong: It’s really hard for a white man like me to make house music...”
Today, after five years of stagnation due to contract issues, Ludovic Nawach, also known as Saint-Germain, is leading the band. is back with his latest blues album under the jazz banner. The album is scheduled to be officially released on April 8. Ludo remained tight-lipped about the album, only revealing: "There are only four pure house-style songs in the album. This album is a continuation of my style, which runs through the music produced by electronic equipment and the efforts of musicians, as well as live music." version and demo songs we produced ourselves.” Both Jamaican guitarist Ernest Longoning and percussionist Idrisha Diop have wonderful guest performances on the album.
While waiting for this album, revisit some of Ludovic's old songs, such as: "My mama said", "Walk so lonely" or "Prelusion" (Prelusion), you will realize that Ludovic's music has transcended the scope of fashion and trends. This must have something to do with his name, which will never go out of style.
Philippe Barbot