Voyage of a turn-tablist

Amarjot Kaur

At the age of 14 when French DJ Jean Du Voyage set out to study music, he picked up flute as his instrument of choice and enrolled in a music school. However, the conventional concept of teaching and learning did not quite appeal to his sensibilities. Soon, he dropped the idea of learning music and took to music console, where he tutored himself on turning tables. At 32, Jean, who hails from La Rochelle, is experimenting with different sounds, instruments and music genres to create his second album that will feature Indian musicians, who he claims to invite to France for 20 days and perform at a concert too.

“As a turn-tablist, I would hear many people say that I am not a musician, even though I play many instruments. But what are musicians really? The ones who get a degree in music? On my first visit to India, I spent a lot of time in Varanasi and brought as many as six instruments. This time too, I visited Delhi’s finest store for musical instruments, Rikhi Ram, who would manufacture Pandit Ravi Shankar’s sitars and bought a Punjabi folk music instrument Tumbi, but a fretted one,” says Jean.

As he details on his chance encounters with local musicians, Jean shares that he found some interesting sitar and tabla players. “I plan to take a few of them to France with me and make a new album. I like picking up different sounds and music styles, and mixing them on my pad,” says Jean, who has remixed with several Bollywood songs, including Silsila Yeh Chahat Ka from the movie Devdas.

Although electronic music arrived in India in the early 2000, the genre found many takers for it in Europe since the 90s. Of his prime influences, Jean keeps Bonobo and DJ Shadow’s music on the top shelf. So, as he defines his music, he shares that he borrows references from world music and weaves them in his style. “I have a light ear and I pick up interesting sounds, which I could later; toy with on my console and give them my own spin. There references could be hip-hop, dub step or trance, coming from India, Africa or even America,” he shares.

His first album titled Myntra, he shares, has interested the likes of many across 72 countries, including yoga instructors (who like to use his compositions as background music). “I was quite surprised when I fell upon a video of an Australian yoga instructor, who was using my music in the background,” he says.

With one album and three EPs under his belt, Jean uses turn table for scratching, DJ Mixer for digital effects and a Native Instrument Maschine to put up a gig. For the rest, he depends on the power of experimentation and of course, the feeling that his music evokes. “My music is pretty much electronica and no it is not aimed at making people dance just as long as it can make their souls dance!” he sings off. (Jean Du Voyage will perform at the auditorium of Department of Physics, PU on December 5 at 7 pm)

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