Just out of his teens, Sebastien Devaud – not yet Agoria, but already a music lover – stamped his feet in front of the counter of a record shop specialized in electronic sounds (or house music as it was then known). He was waiting for improbable American or German vinyls that would shape a culture and a well-defined willpower to engage permanently in an eccentric/electric lifestyle…
A true education in parallel to the countryside family nest, where his fairly artistic parents (his father is the architect of the bubble-house on the cover of his debut album, and his mother teaches music) give him a taste for music and real life, where childhood friends are friends for life, and where his radio serves as a musical matrix…
When he discovers the first techno tracks and raves, it was a true electroshocks that will lead this young man to give life to what could have been a mere childhood dream, mark of the passionate worker with an insatiable curiosity and eternal smile.
THE “BLOSSOMING”:
2003, Barcelona, Sonar, 5AM - Agoria enjoys the communion with a raging audience of 10000 people… He’s come a long way: training on the machines, first records for small companion labels, learning the record industry too; a publisher, an agent, a manager, true commercial and an album “Blossom”, in 2004.
Critically acclaimed all over the world, “Blossom” is a milestone for the new dance scene mixing inventive melodies, groove and beats. Nothing to explain, just take note: a little something more, the sincere craving to try. And it works: a track with Tricky on the first album, a remix for Paul Kalkbrenner (Bpitch Control), or Inner City Detroit anthem “Big Fun”, consistent artwork (hello Kofea), cheeky 12’’, real underground hits heard on every single dance floor (La 11ème Marche, Sky Is Clear, Spinash Girl), a couple of plebiscite at the core of electronic music (Trax, Groove,Dj Mag...).
TRAVEL BROADENS MIND:
Carrying round flight case, headphones and Sunday t-shirts every weekend, Sebastien Devaud spread his Dj skills around the globe. Shifting from local basement to international clubs and festivals, from Brazil to Japan, Spain, Germany ... The list is too long! Probably because of his attention to emotion and details in his set, Agoria was elected two years in a row best DJ by the Trax magazine's readers poll.
2005, time to lay the staggering experience of his set down on a CD: Cute & Cult!
Inside : 15 years knowledge, rare & beautiful things, from the Mulholland Drive soundtrack theme to a stunning piano reinterpretation of Derrick May's anthem... not to mention an exclusive new track Les Beaux Jours done especially for the project. A perfect hors d'oeuvre for his new album, “The Green Armchair”.
THE EVIDENCE:
Whether the fundamentalists of the electronic genre like it or not, The Green Armchair was Undoubtedly an essential success of the fusion of styles. Eleven tracks of today’s music, a sort of snapshot of a certain vision of electronic music, terribly ambitious, yet perfectly accomplished and mastered.
A few dancefloor tracks, “Code 1026”, unanimously recognized as one of the techno anthem of year 2006, “Europa” or the classic “Les Violons Ivres”... A few unusual collaborations aimed at bringing the listener to a sort of melancholic reverie, to insert a bit of bittersweet reflection beyond the original bang-bang-bang : Peter Murphy from the cult krautrock band Bauhaus, Neneh Cherry, the soul sister or Francesco Tristano, a gifted young pianist ... As a DJ he as kept on visiting the world with club residencies in Barcelona (Loft / Razzmatazz), Madrid (Danzoo/Macumba), Lyon (Nuits Sonores, festival that he created in his hometown and who is now the biggest music French festival) and Paris (Rex Club).
BE BRAVE:
No wonder this insatiable appetite for diversity and quality led Sebastien to set up his own label. Born French late 2006, InFiné... has since then traveled to Mexico with Cubenx, to Berlin with Apparat, Austria with Clara Moto or to Bamako with Donso. From the darkness of Marseilles Danton Eeprom's electronic beats to the clear and almost divine piano notes of Barcelona’s Francesco Tristano, Sebastien keeps with InFiné as with his own productions on tracking quality across the genre for the sake of music.
AT THE CONTROLS:
2007 was also a busy year with remixes for: Underground Resistance release from John “Billiebob” Williams, Unkle “Burn My Shadow” new single and his Lyon’s neighbour Scalde… He set up his first live with his mates the Spanish Jose Lagarellos on machines and the Berliner Honza from Pfadfinderei video design company. Created first time in his hometown Nuits Sonores festival (2007 edition) and then he took off for Dour festival (Benelux), Astropolis (Brest/France), Dance Valley, (Amsterdam/Holland), Creamfields (Almeria/Spain)…
Meanwhile, after James Holden, Mandy and just before Claude von Stroke, Agoria released the third issue of the mythic “At The Controls” mixed compilation collection, merging in two CD, tracks from his new InFiné favorites, cinematic soundscapes and club anthems. Innovative and diversified, “At The Controls” ended up second in Resident Advisor 2007 compilation chart.
GOING FASTER:
The action movie, focused on these famous ‘Go Fasters’, the automobile pilots with a fury for ultra-powerful, armed convoys who transport over a ton of hashish at 200 km/hour or more on the European motorways, with an aim of outsmarting the police forces. It just so happens that producers Emmanuel Prévost and Stéphane Lecomte listened to Agoria’s album ‘The Green Armchair’ completely by chance. They were soon to fall head over heels in love with the album, and decided to synchronise two scenes of the film with tracks ‘Code 1026’ and ‘Europa’. Agoria asks to see the scenes. Soon, he enjoys it so much that he is asked to compose the entire score for the film. Apparently, imagining music over images is a job in itself.
Agoria soon realises this when someone tells him. But it does not deter him as he tools to compose another album, which could naturally become his third, simply inspired from the images and the scenario of ‘Go Fast’.
Three Eps will be taken from the soundtrack and released on 12”: “Dust”, “Diva Drive” and “Solarized”. All of the them with a distinct style…
WHAT´S NEXT?
Agoria is taking a new bend end of the year 2009. On top of remixes for Josh Wink`s Ovum and the funky official keyboard of the soulfull hip-hop Quannum Collective from San Francisco, General Elektriks, he will sign, “Magnolia”, a first EP for his own label InFiné in November. 2010 should also see the release of Internationally well known mixed compilation … and the shine of his fourth album.
TO BE CONTINUED…
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