Julien Lourau
Kinetic saxophone lines weaving through jungle breaks and global rhythms. High-energy French jazz that feels like a midnight sprint through a digital metropolis.
Kinetic saxophone lines weaving through jungle breaks and global rhythms. High-energy French jazz that feels like a midnight sprint through a digital metropolis.
Julien Lourau sounds like the exact moment a jazz club collides with an underground rave. His music is defined by a restless, searching saxophone that refuses to stay in one lane, darting between traditional post-bop elegance and the jagged, high-speed textures of electronic jungle and breakbeat. It is urban, sophisticated, and deeply rhythmic, often feeling like a soundtrack to a city that never sleeps.
What makes Lourau distinctive is his 'Groove Gang' mentality: a collaborative, borderless approach to composition that treats the sampler and the drum machine with the same reverence as the trombone or the flute. He doesn't just add beats to jazz; he deconstructs the harmonic language of Ornette Coleman and reassembles it using the tools of modern club culture and global folk traditions, particularly Afro-Cuban and Balkan influences.
Start with 'Gambit' to hear his most iconic fusion of jazz and electronic music. It captures the turn-of-the-millennium French scene perfectly. If you prefer something more grounded in acoustic mastery, 'The Rise' shows his maturity as a soloist, while 'Julien Lourau VS Rumbabierta' is essential for those who love the intersection of avant-garde horn play and heavy Latin percussion.
Julien Lourau (born 3/2/1970) is a French jazz saxophonist. He is the son of sociologist René Lourau. Julien Lourau made his début in the group Trash Corporation with guitarist Noël Akchoté and pianist Bojan Zulfikarpasic. He also founded the group Olympic Gramofon with Sébastien Martel, Vincent Ségal, Eric Löhrer, Cyril Atef, and DJ Shalom. In 1992, Julien Lourau won the first soloist prize in La Défense and went on to set up his Groove Gang. In 1999, he experimented with electronic music for his album Gambit which attracted a following from young French people and led to a number of successful concerts. He won that year's jazz trophy at the "Victoires de la Musique" awards. He returned to a more traditional jazz in 2002 with the album The rise, regarded as his most mature album. 2007 saw the release of Julien Lourau vs Rumbabierta which combines Lourau's avant-garde jazz with Afro-Cuban sounds. Julien Lourau also collaborated with the hip hop dance collectif le Groove Gang in a show untitled « Come fly with us ». By doing so, he encountered the French hip hop dance pioneer Bintou Demébélé, who was at the moment a member of the Groove Gang. Julien Lourau will thereafter invite her to dance at some of his concerts. His composition includes forms absorbed from Latin, African, Caribbean and European folk music.
Shares saxophone, nu jazz, train ride, jazz fusion (signature)
Shares train ride, restless, sample based, trip-hop (atmosphere)
Shares nu jazz, train ride, jazz fusion, trip-hop (signature)
Shares nu jazz, sample based, trip-hop, saxophone (signature)
Shares saxophone, avant-garde jazz, jazz fusion, nu jazz (signature)
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