Deep Forest by Deep Forest

Deep Forest is the first studio album by the musical group Deep Forest, consisting of French duo Eric Mouquet and Michel Sanchez. The album mixes New Age electronics with UNESCO field recordings of music from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Solomon Islands, Burundi, Tibesti, and the Sahel. Deep Forest was nominated for the Grammy Award as Best World Music Album in 1994. For Sanchez and Mouquet, the most important purpose of the album was to express their own fascination with the Efe people, and open the world's ears to the exquisite sound of a quickly vanishing culture. As Mouquet noted, "It's not very often you can hear a Pygmy singing on the radio." More than 3 million copies of the album have been sold. The album went Platinum in the US, France and New Zealand; Double Platinum in Australia and Greece; and Gold in the UK and Norway. The album was certified 2x Diamond by the SNEP Export Awards in 2002. The songs "Sweet Lullaby", "Deep Forest", "Forest Hymn" and "Savana Dance" were released as singles, the first two of which became hits worldwide. The album currently remains out of print, due to copyright and attribution disputes over the sampling of music from indigenous peoples. Though a percentage of the profits from sales of Deep Forest goes to the Pygmy Fund, a California-based organization committed to helping the natives of central Africa cope with environmental threats to their homeland, it has been noted that the indigenous groups featured on the album would not be assisted by the Pygmy Fund. In 2005 Joni Mitchell included two tracks from this album, "Night Bird" and "The First Twilight", as related to her musical development on her Artist's Choice CD.