Laurent Garnier has been making the planet dance for
almost 30 years. And, for all these years, his boundless energy has seen him
grooving behind record decks, bouncing up and down behind studio equipment and
leaping around radio studios. He is a multi-faceted artist whose impact on the
music scene is far-reaching. But above all he is a DJ, a true DJ: transformed
by music, passionate about the crowd. Bodies move in a trance on the dance
floor, minds elsewhere. Yet he is also an explorer of old and new sounds and
has an amazingly rich musical culture. He spends most of his spare time sifting
through old vinyl in record shops, following the most obscure leads on the
internet and listening to every single piece of music he is sent. Music, the
pulse of our planet, is his Holy Grail.
One of the pioneering DJs of the dance music scene,
Laurent Garnier experienced first-hand the euphoria of the acid-house movement
in Manchester. He then went on to Wake Up and shake up Paris nightlife, from La
Luna to the Palace, not forgetting the Rex Club. As one of the leading lights
in French dance music at the end of the 1980's, he then spread his message
across the planet, from raves to warehouse parties, clubs to festivals. The
Excess Luggage 5-CD collection sums up the somewhat hectic life of this
globetrotting DJ whose antennae are permanently tuned-in to sounds from around
the globe, current trends, and the music of the next generation. At the
beginning of 2011, Laurent Garnier was the only Frenchman to be voted one of
the top 35 international DJs by readers of the UK magazine Mixmag. One of many
accolades for this turntable impresario whose incredible DJ sets blend techno
from Detroit and beyond, and mix in hints of jazz, sweltering disco,
heart-warming house, African grooves, jungle, dubstep and bass music.
Musical eclecticism is at the heart of Laurent
Garnier's contribution to radio. At the beginning of the 1990's, Laurent
Garnier got behind the microphone, playing records on Radio FG, Maxximum and
Radio Nova, where he remained a vital force for the next 18 years. Uncovering
rare records, selecting new sounds and promoting new trends, Laurent Garnier
has found great satisfaction and pleasure in radio broadcasting. To the point
when, in 2003, he created Pedro's Broadcasting Basement, his own webradio open
day and night that can be accessed across the planet. And as if that was not
enough, for four successive years he presented his own weekly radio show It Is
What It Is, broadcast in France (Le Mouv), Belgium (Pure FM), Switzerland
(Couleur 3) and Mali (La Chaine 2).
Laurent Garnier is an artist who never stands still.
He is tireless in his enthusiasm and is always bursting with new ideas and
projects. As well as the demands of his DJ-ing and his radio shows, Laurent
Garnier has also evolved into a well-respected music producer. His first big
hits (Acid Eiffel and Wake Up), both soundtracks to the explosion of dance music
in France, have paved the way for a series of albums that are both elaborate
and multi-layered. From the techno undercurrents of Shot in the Dark to the
ambition of Tales of a Kleptomaniac, the electronic odyssey of 30, the maturity
of Unreasonable Behaviour, and the visionary escapism of The Cloud Making
Machine. In the space of five celebrated albums, Laurent Garnier has embarked
upon a remarkable journey. A journey marked by some incredible electronic music
anthems, loved by both DJs and the public alike: Flashback, Crispy Bacon, The
Man With The Red Face, Back To My Roots, Gnanmankoudji, It's Just Muzik. His
discography is also inseparable from the story of F Communications, the label
that he created in 1994 with Eric Morand and which brought to the fore
producers such as Mr Oizo, St Germain, Jori Hulkkonen, AlexKid and Scan X.
This musical journey is described in the book
Electrochoc that Laurent Garnier and the journalist-writer David Brun-Lambert
wrote together and which came out in 2003. An updated and extended version was
released in 2013. In this biography, Laurent Garnier tells the epic story of
electronic music through his experiences and recollections. Electrochoc was a
publishing hit and has subsequently been translated into several other languages
including English (published by Rocket 88 publishing in May 2015), Spanish,
German, Japanese, Russian and even Croatian. In addition, Electrochoc is
currently the inspiration behind a screenplay for cinema co-written by Laurent
Garnier. Filming is due to begin late 2015.
Aside from his albums and singles, Laurent Garnier is
also a composer for the cinema, television and theatre. He wrote the music for
the films SDF Go Home and Qu'Allah BŽnisse La France, for the documentary Play,
for the animated film Globi and the Stolen Shadows and in 2010 made the music
for the French television show Groland. For theatre, Laurent Garnier has
composed the music for contemporary dance choreographers Angelin Preljocaj
(Fire Sketch and Suivront Mille Ans de Calme) and Marie-Claude Pietragalla
(Sade: Le Theatre des Fous and M et Mme Reve). All of these musical scores are
characterised by being wonderfully inspirational experiences and are just one
aspect of Laurent Garnier's far-reaching career founded upon commitment and
passion.
Whether behind the decks or a radio microphone,
Laurent Garnier has managed to fulfil his childhood dream: sharing the best of
music with people. And now Laurent Garnier the DJ has further evolved into an
accomplished musician, whose talents are widely recognised. One of his great
strengths is knowing how to take his own music on to the stage as live
performance. From the Olympia in 1998 to the Tales of a Kleptomaniac tour in
2009/2010, Laurent Garnier has reinvented himself as an important live artist,
defending his music and his vision as well as his sense of immediacy and need
for improvisation. Surrounded by experienced musicians, Laurent Garnier lights
up the stage like a DJ does a dance floor. During his most recent tour of about
100 concerts performed over a period of 18 months, he won over audiences from
the Nice Jazz Festival, Benicassim, the Salle Pleyel in Paris, to I Love Techno
in Ghent.
Following on from the Tales of A Kleptomaniac tour,
the LBS concept Ð Live Booth Sessions or Loud Bass & Samples Ð toured the
planet between 2010-2013. This concept had a live format and was made up of
three performers: Laurent Garnier (DJ & machines), Benjamin Rippert
(keyboards) and Scan X (machines). An experimental live music project, it
married the organic and the electronic, with the flexibility of the DJ and the
intensity of the live performance. Specially created to match the feverish
atmosphere of a club, LBS worked the dance floor to a frenzy with marathon
sets.
This time-out, performing live, motivated Laurent
Garnier to return to his first love: DJ-ing. He has gone back to globetrotting
and working as an untiring DJ, hungry for new sounds, performing in major
festivals (Sonar, Dekmantel, Nuits Sonores, Time Warp, Weather), familiar clubs
(Berghain/Panorama Bar, Fabric, Fuse) and new places (Output, Le Sucre,
Concrete). There, he was able to test out the five EP's that make up the
Garnier Project released in 2014 on five different labels: Still Music, Musique
Large, 50Weapons, MCDE, Hypercolour (these EPs are now available as one box set
entitled the HOME box out on F Communications). The Garnier project is a new
experience for Laurent to produce an album; The HOME box album is coming out in
May 2015 on F Communications. Laurent is still known to share the decks once in
a while with other DJ friends such as Boys Noize, Manu Le Malin, Carl Cox or
Motor City Drum Ensemble. His sets are always so generous by nature. Always in
tune with the crowd and the energy on the dance floor. Some things never change: it's the story
of his life
Written by: Written by: Olivier Pernot (2015)
