On Saturday night, Le Poisson Rouge hosted France’s Deep Forest, who gave their New York City debut performance to a crowd of enamored fans, most of whom seemed nothing short of absolutely thrilled for the opportunity to experience the innovative electronic world music in a live setting. Many spectators had clearly been in tune with the sounds of Deep Forest for many years, recognizing almost every song and grooving enthusiastically at all the right moments, creating an infectious energy of joy and reunion akin to the feeling of visiting visiting a dear old friend.

Spirits were high amongst audience members, as frontman Eric Mouquet announced his intention to primarily cover old material, particularly from their self-titled debut album. They opened appropriately with the title track off Deep Forest, following with many other iconic tracks, including “Endangered Species”, “Madzulu”, and “Sweet Lullaby”, keeping their focus primarily on material based on African indigenous rhythms and samples, with a brief foray into Eastern European culture with “Cafe Europa”. Rather than continuously playing tracks back to back, transitions between songs were marked by an introduction on the part of Eric Mouquet, who provided a brief background and explanation for each coming track. This, along with significant alteration of the lighting scheme for each song, enabled the audience to truly appreciate each individual track as a work of art, and to focus on the complexities of the sound more actively.

Throughout the performance, a visual backdrop consisting of footage from life in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, focused the eye as well as the ear on the performance. The footage was taken from a film scored by Eric Mouquet, to be released this winter. Check out his website for more information.

Ultimately, the experience was made enjoyable not only by the quality of the musicianship, but by the sheer joy that the artists themselves expressed on stage. Their appreciation for their music, for one another, and for the support of the audience made it impossible to not be swept into the feeling of elation, leaving the crowd begging for just one more song after the end of the encore.