Julien Lourau

Born in 1970, Julien Lourau attentively listened to contemporary currents. Like a whole generation which grew up listening to fusion bands of the ‘70’s and the ‘80’s, the saxophonist naturally evolved in mixed sounds of his time. His first experiences alongside Noël Akchoté and the Bosnian pianist Bojan Zulfikarpasic in Trash Corporation actually reflect a creative ardour, a refusal of dogmas. We may find in it free influences, Ornette Coleman’s harmolody, a rock energy and a lot of freedom.

In 1992, Julien Lourau wins the first soloist prize in La Défense. He then sets up his Groove Gang, in which we find again Daniel Casimir (trombone), Nicolas Genest (trumpet), Daniel Garcia-Bruno (drums), Jules Bikoko Bi N’jami (bass)…The combo funk achieves a first explosive album. Groove Gang (1995) chooses to play an organic, wordly music, always swift to unite winds coming from different horizons around a strong beat.

Appreciated for his sound, his solid way of playing, alloy of a rhythmic power and a sensitivity (for instance, in his performance as a sideman on albums of the great Abbey Lincoln), Julien Lourau has been requested by Henri Texier, Marc Ducret. After a more urban second part of the Groove Gang’s adventures, City Boom Boom (1998), with Minino Garay (percussions), Malik Mezzadri (flute), voices (particularly Laïka Fatien), DJ Shalom, concerts attracting a more and more numerous young audience, Julien Lourau dissolves the band in 1999. He just wishes to do something else. But friendships remain and the gang partners often interfere in his other attempts.

In 1999, Julien Lourau turns to jungle rhythms, taking for faraway tours the drummer Maxime Zampieri, the young bassist Sylvain Daniel, the keyboard player Stephanus Vivens, the Tamul musician Dondieu Divin, the programmer Jeff Sharrel, Minino Garay and Malik Mezzadri, two only survivors of the Groove Band. Gambit (2000) synthesizes this immersion in new sounds.

Because he does not want to freeze in one aesthetic, he then refocuses on the composition of more classical and more elaborated themes, influenced by his trips to Latin America and his numerous encounters. The Rise (2002) is being felt as the album of his maturity.

From the freedom of his concerts at the Instants Chavirés at the beginning of his career to the rigour of standards offered a few years later at the Sunset, Julien Lourau did not renounce any source allowing him to enrich his musician’s palette. This new chapter in an already rich and curious career once again testifies to it.