Born in the early 197s, Ludovic Navah is the son of an interior decorator. He grew up in Saint Germain-Angles, a suburb of Paris. Ludovic's greatest interest as a child was sports. The young boy spends all his free time on sailing, windsurfing and roller skating. However, Ludovic's sports career ended prematurely because of a serious motorcycle accident at the age of fourteen. The accident kept him in bed for two whole years. It was during that period of gradual recovery that Ludovic discovered the joy of using computer programs. The teenager's computer skills were enough to make him adept in his career as a DJ in the early 198s. Inspired by the house music that sprang up in Chicago and Detroit at that time, Ludovic locked himself in the studio and devoted himself to writing, and began to try to create mixed electronic music on his computer and electronic equipment. At the same time, Ludovic had an amazing musical accomplishment by listening to a lot of blues, reggae and later soul music, jazz and hip-hop music in his youth. His encyclopedic knowledge of music laid a solid foundation for the comprehensive works he created in his later music career.
house Music Made at Home When Ludovic first started to work as a DJ, it was actually House music that made him famous. In the early 199s, he locked himself in the studio of his mother's house in Versailles, far away from the world, and devoted himself to his creation: the turntable whizzkid and House were innovatively mixed together to achieve a subtle mixed sound effect. Since 1991, Ludovic has launched his works under various stage names. His previous names include: Sub System, Deepside (Ludovic used this stage name in his album with his friend Guy Laible). After that, he began to use a series of new stage names, such as Modus Vivendi, Soofle (a duet with Shazi) and DS. But no matter what name he hides behind, the style of his works has never changed-his electronic mixed sound effects are always looking for new inspiration and advantages, saturated with the influence of ambient music from Detroit, garage from new york and the beat essence of Chicago house. After a period of constantly changing stage names, Ludovic finally chose "Saint Germain". In 1993, he released his first single "Trax France" under the name of Saint Germain. This new stage name skillfully combines the name of Ludovic's hometown (Saint Germain-Angles) with the Earl of Saint Germain (a court figure in the period of Louis XV in France, notorious for his riddled lies).
Boulevard Saint-Germain gained a firm foothold in the embryonic stage of French electronic music through 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 remix album was released, it not only caused a stir in French jazz music, but also made a big splash in electronic music. Boulevard completely breaks the boundary between jazz and electronic beats. In fact, "Avenue" should have a great response all over the world. Even in the heart of electronic music-the United States. The total sales of this album reached a staggering 2 thousand copies. Was unanimously elected as the best dance album of the year in Britain. Avenue was even nominated for the British Dance Music Award, and so was Michael Jackson! Following the great success of his album on the charts, Saint Germain performed live at the famous Rennes International Music Exchange Festival for the first time in December 1995. While his fame is growing in the electronic music industry, invitations from all over the world are flying to him like snowflakes. Saint-Germain's remixes cover the works of many artists, including bjork (1995), French contemporary composer Pierre-Henri (1997) and Cape Verdean Starboy Gemendes (1998)
Strangely, while Saint-Germain's name is getting louder and louder in the electronic music world, he spends less and less time in the studio because of his own music. Apart from his mixing work, the French master of mixing has not released the follow-up works of Avenue for the next five years. Ludovic is very uneasy about his growing reputation, and he is also troubled that his music is simply positioned within the scope of electronic music. He once had the idea of giving up the stage name Saint-Germain, even the music career. After a sudden major change, Ludovic understood that what was lacking in his music was the element of mixed music. This inspired his later career development. Eager to cooperate with other artists, Saint Germain, a pioneer of music in Xinjiang, decided to cancel the contract with F.Com Company, which is famous for making electronic music, and change to Blue Note Company, which has a legendary jazz reputation. This brought a turn for the better in his music career. His advantage of mixed music has been brought into full play in cooperation with some real musicians such as Senegalese superstar Idrissa Diop and Jamaican guitarist Ernest Longonen. When Saint-Germain's second album "Tourists" was released in April 2, the French remix master set off a worldwide storm with his incomparable jazz house, reggae and African beats. Facts have proved that the sales performance of Tourist is more successful than that of Avenue. After the successful release of a single named Rose Red, the sales volume of Tourist soared like a rocket, breaking through the 25, mark in France. But this is nothing to the worldwide sales performance. Tourist was released worldwide in September 2, and by the summer of 21, its sales volume had risen to 1.5 million copies! Following the amazing success of Tourists, Saint Germain was inundated with invitations to concerts from all over the world. He spent most of the second half of 2 touring the world. After finishing his European tour in London on October 2th, 2, the world-class king of roulette performed his last stop in Olympia, Paris on November 9th. Saint germain will return to Olympia to perform again on April 6, 21. This will be his last performance before going to conquer the dance floors in America, Asia and New Zealand. At the same time, the praise of music critics flooded into Saint-Germain. On February 17th, 21, Saint Germain was also nominated for the "Music Victory" award in the Sani category. The mixing wizard finally left with three awards: Best Jazz Newcomer of the Year, Best Electronic Album and Best Live Performance of the Year. Saint-Germain had a full schedule throughout the summer of 21, and performed at the top music events in Europe, including the Nice Jazz Festival, the Swiss Pariaud Music Festival, the Les Vieilles Charrues Music Festival and the Fourvière Music Festival in Lyon. At the end of August, 22, Saint Germain finished the last of his 26 performances at Hyde Park in London. In the two years after the release of his second album "Tourists", its sales volume reached 6, in France alone and 2 million worldwide.
In September, 22, there was an amazing man named Saint Germain in the court of the 18th century French King Louis XV. He claimed to be hundreds of years old. Today, at the beginning of the 21st century, the man we want to talk about is also unusual, but he is only 3 years old, and he is neither a liar nor a noble, but an artist. He is Ludovic Navah. Also known as Saint Germain, as the pioneer of French Touch, a new type of electronic music produced in France, Ludovic has undoubtedly become a respected celebrity in the international music field. Without Ludovic, the groups from Paris, such as "Daft Punk" and "Air and Dimitri", might still be performing in those poor areas of France.
He performed in 1999. The album was selected as "British Album of the Year" and nominated for "London Dance Award", along with singers Goldie, d'Angelo and Michael Jackson. For a "weird little French artist", it is very good to be able to achieve such results in Britain. Since then, our hero Ludo has made himself famous through his electronic remixes Cape Verdean Boy Ge Mendes, Synthesis and Historic Pierre-Henry.
But Ludovic doesn't value honors, bonuses and other college awards. For him, a conservative and taciturn Paris suburb resident, there is nothing more pleasant than staying in his studio and playing with his demo discs and musical instruments. It was as early as 1991 that he created his signature music-fusion music. This is a kind of music that combines jazz, blues, emotional path music, house and dub remixes in techno. This is not a simple and hasty commercial sound puzzle, but a mature mixture that has been brewed for a long time, a music that combines electronic equipment and musical instruments, traditional and modern music.
When Ludovic is recording songs for an old black blues singer (just like the now famous Alabama blues, when it first appeared in 1995, there were a large number of imitators-for example, Moby's latest work), his critical attitude is like a loyal fan of Lightnin' Hopkins, or Ludovic grew up listening to Bob Marley, Toots, Maytals, Miles Davis, Koo and the Gang.
it was a coincidence that he entered the music circle. In the early days, the dream of our "bedroom composer" was to enter the sports world. In adolescence, Ludovic's great passion for sailing, windsurfing and skiing was shattered by an accident. Therefore, he had to change his profession and become a computer geek, and occasionally attended some parties as a DJ. Together with his good friend Guy Laible, Ludovic composed his first song Sub System. Even then, his first concern was how to distinguish his music from others. "At that time, almost everyone made techno's rhythm 15 beats per minute (15 bpm), which almost became an unchangeable law. Therefore, I began to try to do everything more slowly … "
He released several single discs (EP) under a series of different stage names. His stage names are: Deep Side, Soofle, Modus Vivendi, Ln's, Nuages, D.S. But he soon gave up the pure techno style and turned to a more melancholy and sensual music form. Since then, a new bright spot has joined the axis of new york/Chicago/Detroit, which is different from Parisian style.
However, Ludovic never worries about what kind of trademark his music is labeled. Even though he thinks techno has been dominated and influenced by industrial output and influenced by some demagogues and music critics, Ludovic will not be bothered by it. He devoted all his energy to realizing his own dream. His dream is to record more works with other musicians, as he did at Rennes International Music Festival in 1995 and burgos Spring Music Festival the following year. He added jazz to his music. After his first album Avenue, Saint-Germain devoted all his energy to the Saint-Germain project, with Pascal Oser as the trumpet player, Ai Du Wade Raber as the saxophone and flute player, Alexandre Deshei as the keyboard player, and edmundo Carneiro as the drummer. "I'm not a musician," Lu said modestly. "I'm just good at playing with the mouse. After the album Avenue, I actually thought about giving up my music career. I feel like I've got it all wrong: it's really ... "
Today, after five years of stagnation due to contract problems, Ludovic Navah, alias Saint Germain, is back with his latest blues album under the jazz banner. This album is scheduled to be officially released on April 8. Ludo kept his mouth shut about this album, only revealing: "There are only four songs in the album that are pure house style. This album is a continuation of my style, running through the music made by electronic devices and the hard work of musicians, with both live versions and sample songs made by ourselves. " Jamaican guitarist Ernest Longonen and percussionist Idrisa Diop both made wonderful guest performances in this album.
While waiting for this album, review some of Ludovic's old songs, such as My mama said, Walk so lonely or Prelude, and you will realize that Ludovic's music has gone beyond the scope of fashion and trends. This must have something to do with his name. The name Saint Germain will never go out of date.
Philip Barbot