Laurent Garnier
Encyclopedia
Laurent Garnier (born 1 February 1966, Boulogne-sur-Seine, France
) is a French
techno music producer
and DJ
. Garnier began DJ-ing in Manchester
during the late 1980s. By the following decade, he had a broad stylistic range, able to span deep house
, Detroit techno
, trance
and jazz
. He added production work to his schedule in the early 1990s, and recorded several album
s.
, where his family lived. He loved disco but also listened to all other contemporary musical genres including reggae, funk, and punk. At the age of 16, Garnier had started recording
and mixing
music on tape recorder
s.
In 1984, Garnier started working as a waiter for the French Embassy in London
. He stayed there for a year and a half before moving to Manchester in 1986. Living in England
he discovered the booming UK house scene and started DJing.
in Manchester
, and met Mike Pickering
the resident DJ. Chicago house and Detroit techno became popular, and Garnier started mixing there under the name of DJ Pedro.
In 1988, he went back to France to fulfill his military obligations. He also spent some time in New York
where he met Frankie Knuckles
. Garnier shifted his attention back to France in the early 1990s, running the Wake Up parties at the Rex Club in Paris for three years, while in 1992 he played a three-night long Weekender set at the Cork
venue, Sir Henry's
. He also mixed in clubs such as le Palace or le Boy, DJing in rave parties and gradually moving into recording as well. For the FNAC label
, Garnier released "French Connection" and the A Bout de Souffle EP
. After that label went out of business, he formed the F Communications label with Eric Morand (a friend who had also worked for FNAC). He often also DJed at "Open all hours" at London's Ministry of Sound
on Friday nights, in the early and mid 1990s, and was a resident at The End
before its closure in January 2009.
His first album, Shot in the Dark, was released in 1995. His second, 30, appeared in 1997 and included one of Garnier's best selling singles, "Crispy Bacon". 30 was followed by the retrospective Early Works. After appearing worldwide with DJ appearances during the late 1990s, Garnier returned to production with Unreasonable Behaviour, released in early 2000, which featured one of his best known songs, "The Man with the Red Face". In 2005, The Cloud Making Machine, was released, followed the next year by Retrospective. This was a best of compilation album
, which had both his original work and remixes, including some released on vinyl-only, plus rare tracks. His latest album was Tales of a Kleptomaniac (2009).
Garnier has collaborated with System 7
, and played several live shows with Bugge Wesseltoft
(those recordings appeared on Public Outburst and Retrospective).
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
) is a French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
techno music producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
and DJ
Disc jockey
A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...
. Garnier began DJ-ing in Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
during the late 1980s. By the following decade, he had a broad stylistic range, able to span deep house
Deep house
Deep house is a subgenre of house music that fuses elements of Chicago house into the 1980s jazz-funk and touches of soul music. In the early compositions , influences of jazz music were most frequently brought out by using more complex chords than simple triads which are held for many bars and...
, Detroit techno
Detroit techno
Detroit techno is an early style of electronic music beginning in the 1980s. Detroit, Michigan has been cited as the birthplace of techno music. Prominent Detroit Techno artists include Juan Atkins, Derrick May, and Kevin Saunderson...
, trance
Trance music
Trance is a genre of electronic dance music that developed in the 1990s.:251 It is generally characterized by a tempo of between 125 and 150 bpm,:252 repeating melodic synthesizer phrases, and a musical form that builds up and breaks down throughout a track...
and jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
. He added production work to his schedule in the early 1990s, and recorded several album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
s.
Early influences
During the late 1970s, Garnier discovered clubbing with his brother in ParisParis
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, where his family lived. He loved disco but also listened to all other contemporary musical genres including reggae, funk, and punk. At the age of 16, Garnier had started recording
Sound recording and reproduction
Sound recording and reproduction is an electrical or mechanical inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording...
and mixing
Remix
A remix is an alternative version of a recorded song, made from an original version. This term is also used for any alterations of media other than song ....
music on tape recorder
Tape recorder
An audio tape recorder, tape deck, reel-to-reel tape deck, cassette deck or tape machine is an audio storage device that records and plays back sounds, including articulated voices, usually using magnetic tape, either wound on a reel or in a cassette, for storage...
s.
In 1984, Garnier started working as a waiter for the French Embassy in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. He stayed there for a year and a half before moving to Manchester in 1986. Living in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
he discovered the booming UK house scene and started DJing.
Career
In 1987, he discovered the The HaçiendaThe Haçienda
Fac 51 Haçienda was a nightclub and music venue in Manchester, England. It became most famous during the "Madchester" years of the late 1980s and early 1990s, during the 1990s it was labelled the most famous club in the world by Newsweek magazine...
in Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, and met Mike Pickering
Mike Pickering
Michael "Duncan" Pickering has DJed at The Haçienda's infamous "Nude" and "Hot" nights and later "Shine". He worked for Factory Records where he signed Happy Mondays, To Hell With Burgundy and James amongst others...
the resident DJ. Chicago house and Detroit techno became popular, and Garnier started mixing there under the name of DJ Pedro.
In 1988, he went back to France to fulfill his military obligations. He also spent some time in New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
where he met Frankie Knuckles
Frankie Knuckles
Frankie Knuckles is an American DJ, record producer and remix artist. He played an important role in developing house music as a Chicago DJ in the 1980s and he helped to popularize house music in the 1990s, with his work as a producer and remixer...
. Garnier shifted his attention back to France in the early 1990s, running the Wake Up parties at the Rex Club in Paris for three years, while in 1992 he played a three-night long Weekender set at the Cork
Cork (city)
Cork is the second largest city in the Republic of Ireland and the island of Ireland's third most populous city. It is the principal city and administrative centre of County Cork and the largest city in the province of Munster. Cork has a population of 119,418, while the addition of the suburban...
venue, Sir Henry's
Sir Henry's
Sir Henry's was a bar and nightclub on South Main Street in Cork, Ireland, which opened in 1978 and closed in November 2002 with the building subsequently being demolished. The name is derived from Henry O'Shea who was a baker and building proprietor in the South Main street area of Cork city...
. He also mixed in clubs such as le Palace or le Boy, DJing in rave parties and gradually moving into recording as well. For the FNAC label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
, Garnier released "French Connection" and the A Bout de Souffle EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
. After that label went out of business, he formed the F Communications label with Eric Morand (a friend who had also worked for FNAC). He often also DJed at "Open all hours" at London's Ministry of Sound
Ministry of Sound
Ministry of Sound London, commonly referred to as simply Ministry of Sound or MoS, is a nightclub based in London, United Kingdom and an associated record label. It was ranked fourth in the 2010 DJ Magazine top 100 clubs poll 2010. As well as the nightclub in London, there is another in Egypt and...
on Friday nights, in the early and mid 1990s, and was a resident at The End
The End (club)
The End was a nightclub in the West End of London, England. Started in December 1995 by DJs Layo Paskin and Mr C, The End was world-renowned. It was also responsible for the label End Recordings....
before its closure in January 2009.
His first album, Shot in the Dark, was released in 1995. His second, 30, appeared in 1997 and included one of Garnier's best selling singles, "Crispy Bacon". 30 was followed by the retrospective Early Works. After appearing worldwide with DJ appearances during the late 1990s, Garnier returned to production with Unreasonable Behaviour, released in early 2000, which featured one of his best known songs, "The Man with the Red Face". In 2005, The Cloud Making Machine, was released, followed the next year by Retrospective. This was a best of compilation album
Compilation album
A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...
, which had both his original work and remixes, including some released on vinyl-only, plus rare tracks. His latest album was Tales of a Kleptomaniac (2009).
Garnier has collaborated with System 7
System 7 (band)
System 7 are a British ambient dance band. Due to the existence of another band called System Seven, they were initially marketed as 777 in North America...
, and played several live shows with Bugge Wesseltoft
Bugge Wesseltoft
Jens Christian Bugge Wesseltoft is a Norwegian jazz musician, pianist, composer and producer. He has his own label named Jazzland Records. In the 1990s, Bugge has made a transition from Nordic jazz traditions exemplified by the ECM record label to a style sometimes referred to as "future jazz" or...
(those recordings appeared on Public Outburst and Retrospective).
Albums
- Shot In The Dark (1994)
- Raw Works (US only compilation) (1996)
- 30 (1997)
- Unreasonable Behaviour (2000)
- Early Works (compilation) (1998)
- The Cloud Making Machine (2005)
- Retrospective 1994 - 2006 (compilation) (2006)
- Public Outburst (live albumLive albumA live album is a recording consisting of material recorded during stage performances using remote recording techniques, commonly contrasted with a studio album...
) (2007) - Tales of a Kleptomaniac (2009)
With FNAC Music Dance Division
- "French Connection" (with Mix Master Doody) - 'as French Connection' - 1991
- Stronger By Design EP - 1992
- "Join Hands" (remixes) - 1992
- Paris EP - 1993 - as 'Choice' (also published by Fragile RecordsFragile RecordsFragile Records is a sub-record label of Transmat from Detroit....
) - A Bout de Souffle EP - 1993 (also published by Warp RecordsWarp RecordsWarp, commonly referred to as Warp Records, is a pioneering independent British record label, founded in Sheffield in 1989, notable for discovering some of the more enduring artists in electronic music....
) - "For House Music Lovers" - 1993
- "Lost in Alaska" - 'as Alaska' - 1993
- Planet House EP - 1993
With F Communications
- Dune (with Pascal Feos) - Alliance EP - 1994
- "Astral Dreams" - 1994
- Alaska - Deuxième EP - 1995
- Club Traxx EP - 1995
- "The Hoe" - 1996
- "Crispy Bacon Part 1" - 1997 - UKUK Singles ChartThe UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
#60 - "Crispy Bacon Part 2" - 1997
- "Flashback" - 1997
- "Coloured City" - 1998
- Club Traxx EP Vol 2 - 1998
- "The Sound of the Big Babou" - 1999
- "The Man with the Red Face" - 2000 - UK #65
- "Greed" / "The Man with the Red Face" - 2000 - UK #36
- "Sambou" - 2002
- "Returning Back to Sirius" - 'as Alaska' - 2003
- Marl Chingus (with Ludovic Llorca) - "6 Months Earlier" - 2004
- "The Cloud Making Machine" (reworks vol 1 & 2) - 2005
DVDs
- Greed - DVD single - F Communications, Film Office, TDK Mediactive - 2001
- Live à l'Elysée Montmartre - F communications - 2002
Compilations and DJ sessions
- X-Mix - Destination Planet Dream (Studio !K7 - 1994)
- Mixmag Live Vol. 19 (1995)
- Laboratoire Mix (2xCD, React, 1996)
- Early Works (2xCD, 1998)
- Fashion TV: Spring - Summer 2001 Collection
- Classic And Rare : La Collection Chapter 3 (F CommunicationsF CommunicationsF Communications, also known as FCom, is a French record label based in Paris. It was founded in 1994 by Eric Morand and Laurent Garnier. It produces dance and electronic music like Avril, Laurent Garnier, and Mr. Oizo amongst many others...
, 2002) - Excess Luggage (3xCD, F CommunicationsF CommunicationsF Communications, also known as FCom, is a French record label based in Paris. It was founded in 1994 by Eric Morand and Laurent Garnier. It produces dance and electronic music like Avril, Laurent Garnier, and Mr. Oizo amongst many others...
, 2003) - The Kings Of Techno (Rapster Records, 2006)
- Mixmag 25 Years Anniversary (2008)
- BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix (2009)
External links
- Laurent Garnier — official site
- Laurent Garnier discography at DiscogsDiscogsDiscogs, short for discographies, is a website and database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. The Discogs servers, currently hosted under the domain name discogs.com, are owned by Zink Media, Inc., and are...
- Laurent Garnier profile at club The EndThe End (club)The End was a nightclub in the West End of London, England. Started in December 1995 by DJs Layo Paskin and Mr C, The End was world-renowned. It was also responsible for the label End Recordings....
's website - Laurent Garnier interview on HarderFaster
- Laurent Garnier biography from RFI Musique (in French)
- Laurent Garnier Essential Mix 2009
- Laurent Garnier DJ mix