With France being crowned winners of the World Cup 20 years on from their last World Cup win. To celebrate this auspicious victory Dubai Night looks at some of France’s legendary artists of which there are many…
Jean-Michele Jarre
It is hard to choose where to start when discussing France’s contribution to music in general, so let’s start in 1978 and the French synth composer released the widely acclaim “Oxygène”. This ground-breaking piece of ambient music broke all records and continues to inspire artists around the world.
Laurent Garnier
Few artist have given and continue to give the world of dance music as much as Laurent Garnier. Part of the old guard of artists who was releasing music as early as the mid 90’s and Djing well before that. Garnier’s music continues to crop up in the biggest DJ’s sets and with tracks like “Crispy Bacon” and “The Man With The Red Face” in his locker Laurent Garnier will continue to break boundaries.
St Germain
One of France’s most celebrated is perhaps artist Ludovic Navarre aka St Germain, an artist that fuses house music with nu-jazz to form an ethereal sound of his own. His track “Rose Rouge” from his 2ndalbum “Tourist” is one of his most recognisable and he continues to be one of the most sampled artist of recent times.
Cerrone
Cerrone’s impact on modern music began with his work in the 70’s and 80’s and continues to be echoed in today’s modern disco and house music. His albums “Love In C Minor” and “Supernature” have stood the test of time and are a continued to be a point of reference for the genre.
Justice
Part of the new wave of French Touchartists, the duo of Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay successfully coupled distorted synths and guitars to block rocking beats that propelled them to the top of festival line-ups and made them a household name. Their debut album offered an alternative soundtrack at a point where electro reigned supreme.
Air
Air’s critically acclaimed debut album “Moon Safari” offered fresh insight in to a more electronic way of producing electronic music. With heavy air play for the album almost in its entirety, several of the albums tracks such as “Sexy Boy”, “All I Need” and “La Femme D’argent” have left an indelible mark on electronic music.
Daft Punk
The pairing of Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo need no introduction as they have grown to become one of the most en vogue acts and producers in the world. This is also in part large or small to their manager and equally talented producer Pedro Winter aka Busy Pand his Ed Banger label. The label is also home to Justice and other French electronic luminaries such as DJ Mehdi, Breakbot, Uffie and SebastiAn.
Etiene De Crecy
Also, an important part of the French Touch movement but with a distinctly more electronic feel, Etienne De Crecy alongside sometime studio partners Fred Falkeand AlexGopherare responsible for some of the most recognisable French house and electro moments.
Apollonia
In their solo forms, members Shonky, DyedSoundorom and Dan Ghenacia have all enjoyed huge success with their own productions and DJ sets, but as part of French DJ super group Apollonia the trio are in the process of conquering the world one dynamite club set at a time.
David Guetta
Say what you will about David Guetta and the direction that his music has taken in the last decade, but David Guetta has introduced legions of new and thirsty youngsters to electronic music and brought dance music once again to the top of the charts.