French techno DJ/producer AGORIA has put the final touches to his addition to the Balance series – he speaks about the road travelled with SCOTTY HARMS.

Out of all the outlets for techno in Western Europe, the French scene seems to be the one that forges new sounds most often; Lyon’s Sebastien Devaud – better known as Agoria – paradoxically fits the mould of the French electronic producer by breaking it totally; his early works on 2003 debut album Blossom had that unmistakable French connection of filters and saws, but wandered into the yard where the Stuttgart minimalist clique were hanging out – a combination resulting in the forward-thinking style which now free-flows on labels like Turbo and through the drivers at Rex Club.

For the latest in EQ Recordings’ Balance series, Agoria explored his massive internal library of music. “There are so many podcasts; the music is so easy to find. The accessibility to music on the internet is like … we have too much information. And I asked myself, ‘Is there really any use to making a new mix CD, if it’s just to use 15 tracks that the promo company sends you two months before?”

Agoria didn’t just search through his own bank – he asked others as well, even putting up a challenge on Soundcloud to help him find unique pieces for the compilation. “I asked all my friends to share with me the five tracks that I should know that maybe I missed during the last ten years. So I had a lot of new and fresh material to my ears. And I tried to make a good balance between all those elements.”

Though his parent’s desire was for him to be classically trained at a younger age, he dropped the piano and went on to host a radio show for several years. “Not only for clubbing music; all the music we were thinking was interesting, we spun on air. It was a key period for me – it’s the moment I discovered a lot of music, and the moment where I became eclectic in my choices.”

At the same time, Agoria began a serious interest in electronic music. “When electronic music appeared in Europe, I had to be part of something really new, so it was really exciting at that moment,” he says. “We didn’t know if it was a new trend, or if was a really new style of music that would continue all over the years. But it was real exciting with the rave parties; we didn’t know what kind of music the DJs had, and we didn’t know either who the DJ was.”

Combining his classical foundation with his passion for electronic music to create unique music, Agoria says there are many others like him in the same boat. “I think the new cycle for electronic music is that musicians with a classical background will learn very fast the way to produce electronic music – and that will give a new breed to our music,” he says. “We’ll be much more musically [inclined] and there will be much more clever music than it was in the last few years. I really expect that.”

BALANCE 016 is out now on EQ/Stomp. Visit www.myspace.com/agoriagoria for more info.

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