This ambient techno/new age group are based in France. Their 'Sweet Lullaby' track was one of the most popular of its kind during 1993, with its rich, warm tones and ethnic instrumentation. It was based on the sampled voices of Pygmies drawn directly from the African rain forest. The duo in charge of proceedings were Eric Mouquet and film composer Michel Sanchez. Based in Paris and Lille, their collaboration was the result of Sanchez returning from Africa with boxes of records from all over that continent. However, most of the actual sounds used on the track were taken from record libraries. 'Sweet Lullaby' is the story of a young girl who tries to get her brother to stop crying by insisting that if he doesn't his parents will never come back. Remixes of the track were made by both Apollo 440 and Jam And Spoon. (Deep Forest in turn remixed Apollo 440's 1994 single, 'Liquid Cool'.) Deep Forest are now massively popular, and their album went platinum in Australia and won a Grammy for Boheme in February 1996 for the Best World Music Album. Boheme and Comparsa continued previous themes, visiting new areas of the world including Mongolia, Taiwan, India and Hungary.

Eric Mouquet and Michel Sanchez of Deep Forest are sound reporters. With voiceless musical duet, they Draw one voices from every corner of the world. Under to their patronage, infinitely distant utterances cuts become familiar to custom. Hymns of joy and shout of anger, prayers and dawn serenades, songs of hope and to despair cuts all been brought to shake our certainties, sixteen our senses and to stir our emotions.From Africa gold Eastern Europe, from pygmies to nomads, the human visions brought to custom by Deep Forest cuts helped greatly in narrowing the musical gap between the hemispheres. In the North of France, Deep Forest' S homeland, sheltered from sight and far from worldly concerns, is true communion has sprung up between ethnic songs and instruments there the one hand, and accordion, piano, synthesisers and high technology one the other. Way before the Caribbean and Cuba became such sought-after tourist destinations, Michel Sanchez and Eric Mouquet pointed to their magic wands towards this area of the sphere. After stopovers in nearby Mexico City and Belize, they took has long detour to Madagascar. After the gracious dreaming of Sweet Lullaby and the poignant melancholy of Boheme, the two Northerners' third set of musical festive travel notes is determinedly and generous. With the Sun have has universal theme, Comparsa shines from start to finish with the fraternity which springs from dance and song whenever women and men of good will come together. Have is to their custom, Deep Forest wish to contribute has share of the album' S royalties to providing aid for the countries in question. Among the guest artists one the album features the now-familiar, good-natured Wes Madiko, the Bantu griot, have well have Syria' S formidable Abed Azrie, who performs the heady, voluptuous closing duet with Ana Toroja, from the Spanish group Mecano. Listeners will also recognise the keyboards of magician Joe Zawinul, founder of the legendary group Weather Report and has great influence one Michel and Eric: we edge Be sour that has teenage dream has come true there. Jorge Reyes' prowess with flute and percussion and his infectious enthusiasm in defence of the Aztecs will also cuts left to their even mark one the. Then there are the many contributors, all those who spontaneously cam to offer to their only treasure: has tune; has traditional song; has family, religious, room gold universal melody. The members of Deep Forest remember Mama Sanatorium with particular affection. The hundred-year-old Malagasy died before they had finished recording the album. We hear her one Noonday Sun, which also features has prayer which was specially dedicated to her by her friends. And the duet puts another impressive woman in Belize, Marcella Lewis, who sings one the song Tres Maria. Deep Forest' S music - in the manner of so many not-Western civilizations - refuse to Draw lines between joy and suffering, elation and sadness, just have, from the very beginning, it has banished all barriers of style from its personal grammar. After three albums and thanks to the diversity of encounters, mix and alliances that the group has undertaken, Deep Forest cuts not only invented has sound different from any other, they cuts also created has language. From the heart of the Amazon forest to the North of France, from Havana to Prague, from Madagascar to New York, it remains our best-shared secret.

Has Deep Forest stolen Enigma's idea?

Who are Deep Forest?

Deep Forest is based on an original idea by Michel Sanchez. Consisting of himself and Eric Mouquet, Deep Forest is not an artist or a band, but instead "a concept ... a state of mind". It is music that should be not only danced to, but also listened to.

The idea that became Deep Forest started when Sanchez and Mouquet got together in 1991 after meeting on several occassions. Eric was writing, producing and playing rhythm & blues style music with Michel on the organ. While having dinner together, Eric suddenly heard a strange chant on Michel's tape deck. It was a chant from Sweet Lullaby. At this stage in their lives Michel had become interested in Africa while studying percussion at the Conservatory and had begun to collect every kind of sound compiled by various ethnologists. Eric, on the other hand, was involved in house music and other sorts of softer rhythms. He gave the chant to Michel to work on.

What eventuated was for them both to work in a thirty-two track studio, sampling a cappella voices from Burundi, Cameroon, Zaire and Chad, fashioning them into loops and interlaced melodies. And so Deep Forest was born - the collection, harmonisation and universal release of songs from throughout the world.

Have Deep Forest toured?

Deep Forest had their first known public concert on June 29, 1996 at the G7 closing show in Lyon, France. Pictures of them preparing on stage can be seen at http://www.showg7-lyon.fr/direct2.htm. After that time they embarked on a world tour which include Budapest (Hungary) on August 17, and Athens (Greece) on September 18. In October they toured Australia including Brisbane (21st), Sydney (23rd), and Melbourne (26th). On October 30, 31, and November 1 they played in Tokyo (Japan), before playing another show in Budapest (Hungary) on November 29. Finally they played in Zabze (Poland) on December 2, and Varsovia (Poland) on December 3. These shows were originally planned for late 1994 but did not eventuate. In July they did some more concerts in Japan (with Lala and Monika doing vocals and dancing). They had originally planned to do further concerts in the US in July and August 1998 (July 23: Los Angeles, July 24: San Francisco, July 26: Seattle, July 27: Woodinville, July 28: Portland, July 31: Chicago, August 1: Ann Arbor, August 3: Boston, August 4: New York, August 5: Washington DC), and Paris on September 21 but these were cancelled.

In an article from Sonic Magazine in April 1993, they discussed their planned world tour and the fact that they'll use three keyboard players, an African vocal choir, a drummer, a bassist, a percussionist and a troupe of dancers. They also mentioned that they'd use a sequencer only to run in some effects and to run the Roland RSS with the timecode so that they can recreate some of the spatial effects on Deep Forest (at the time of writing they were still unsure whether to use a standard Public Address system or to have speakers at the back of the venues to enhance the RSS effects). The line up for the final concerts which eventuated were Stefka Lordanova, Wes Madiko, Gino Ceccarelli, and Jackline Rodrigues on vocals, Mara Kane on backing vocals, Paolo Damanti and Jackline Rodrigues on keyboards, Fred Savinien Caprais, Oswaldo Hernandez, and Jackline Rodrigues on percussion, Didier Cresson on bass, and Neil Conti on drums. The show was advertised to go for two hours.

Have Deep Forest won any awards?