Alexandre Navarro is a guitarist, "sound maker," and independent French producer. He was born on August 27, 1974, in Talence near Bordeaux and currently lives in Paris.
In the 1990s, after playing as a guitarist in several rock and chanson bands, the discovery of samplers, drum machines, the acquisition of a 4-track cassette recorder, and a delay pedal radically changed his approach to music: these were his first purely instrumental experiments. The influence of post-rock, trip-hop, and drum & bass became significant markers of his musical emergence, thanks to labels such as Warp, Ninja Tune, Mo Wax, and Thrill Jockey... In 1998, alongside his studies in anthropology specializing in the history of religions, which he completed with a master's degree, he discovered and studied — thanks to an invitation from a friend — concrete and electronic music at the Bordeaux Conservatory. A member of the Octandre association led by composer Christian Eloy, he gained recognition at the Futura 2000 festival with his triptych composition "KIO."
In 2001, having just moved to Paris with his future wife, he partially abandoned purely concrete music despite his fascination with the works of pioneers such as Pierre Schaeffer, Michel Chion, and Bernard Parmegiani. After a brief stint with the electro-pop group Frantic, for which he composed a track, he began an independent career in 2004 and released his first album "Please, sit down" on the Swiss netlabel Realaudio, which emerged from the demoscene and was run by Roger Stucki (a member of the techno duo Digitalis). He was then propelled onto the free scene under the "Creative Commons" license of the time, performing concerts in France, Europe, and Mexico, and releasing music on various international labels such as Archipel (CA), Standard Klik Music (FR), and Mandorla (MX). Stimulated by this excitement, Alexandre Navarro also founded EKO netalbel in 2006 and SEM label in 2007 (with Letna).
Following the closure of SEM in 2014, he founded Disqan and finally the highly conceptual "les disques imaginations" in 2018, featuring eight unique 10” vinyl releases, before deciding to no longer run labels.
These various experiences allowed him to meet numerous international artists and release albums and EPs on other labels: Laverna in Italy, Dronarivm from Russia, the Californian label Constellation Tatsu, the mysterious Handstitched* in UK, and today Facade Electronics (Baja Califormia).
Beautiful encounters, such as that with the sadly deceased Mexican composer Manrico Montero (Mandorla, SEM label, Sub Rosa), turned into friendships and sparked others, like the meeting with Fax (Rubén Tamayo, designer, composer, Co-founder of Static Discos label and founder of the northern Mexican label Facade Electronics). During the time of SEM label and the release of his album Arcane, his decisive encounter with German designer Markus Schäfer — Büro Ink — sealed a beautiful collaborative friendship for most of his artworks and the creation of his logo.
While not conceptual, his compositions intertwine the exploration of modular synthesis, old-school and granular sampling, the play of electric or acoustic guitars sometimes enhanced with numerous effects flirting with shoegaze, field recording, electronics, ambient music, concrete music, and microtuning... But ultimately, it doesn't matter; it is the passion for sound in all its forms. Since 2004, "Navarro" has released over 24 albums and EPs on international independent labels, two of which were nominated for the Qwartz Awards in France (Arcane in 2008 and Loka in 2010). He has had the opportunity to collaborate with artists such as Swiss Sam Graf and his uncle, architect and set designer Frédéric Druot. His music has also been used in the documentary film by Mame-Fatou Niang and Kaytie Nielsen "Mariannes Noires" and several short films, including those by Australian filmmaker and photograph James Latter — "Traveller" in 2016; "Home" in 2021 — and Chilean Martin Ponferrada for "Everything is upstream," which won several awards at the Southern Shorts Awards in 2018, including the "Best Music" award.
Alexandre Navarro has remixed artists such as Brian Eno, Squarepusher, Fax, Manrico Montero, Arbee, Mathon, Yann Pillas, and The Green Kingdom.
Archive 2004 - 2025