DIMITRI FROM PARIS

A slightly awkward situation arose recently during a lively meeting of the Lokerse Feesten Executive Committee. Our regular and incredibly talented announcer, Stijn VDV, has for years made it a habit to send his stage announcements to the agents of the artists to be announced for their review, and this time, for the first time, his email was returned with a clear “NO”. In hindsight, everyone realises: “Ladies and gentlemen, apples and pears, farmers, farmer’s wives, DIMITRI FROM PARIS is about to start”, that’s a bit much. After all, we are talking about the one and only Dimitri From Paris, a living legend who is showered with so much praise within the house music world that he’s used it to build a new garden terrace.  Anyone born before, say, 1984 will surely remember the 1996 LP “Sacrebleu”, an undisputed milestone in international dance music, and the buzz that album caused at the time. Incidentally, the man has Greek roots, grew up in France but was born in Turkey. What we’re trying to say is: we don’t know what he means by ‘home’, but the weather will always be fine there. And that’s exactly what you hear in his music. In short: ‘Sacrebleu’, along with the records by Daft Punk, Air and Cassius, forms the Power Rangers of French dance music in the 90s. There’s more to it than that, mind you; we’ve got a second album (“Cruising Attitude”, 2003), soundtracks, music for adverts (Chanel, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Yves Saint Laurent – though there’s some doubt about Donald Muylle), and remixes. Loads of remixes. Michael Jackson, James Brown, New Order, Björk, Jamiroquai – and that’s just a handful of examples from an Excel file of about four megabytes. Dimitri From Paris will be joining Cassius and Diana Ross, among others, on Friday 31 July. So many legendary names in one evening, you ask? We’ll answer your question by email, with just one word: OUI!