Agoria
Background information
Birth name	Sébastien Devaud
Born	(1976-01-16) 16 January 1976 (age 49)
Occupation	Artist
Labels	Different Recordings, PIAS, Infiné, Sapiens Records
Website	agoria.dev

Agoria (born January 16, 1976, in Lyon, France) is the stage name of Sébastien Devaud, a French multidisciplinary artist whose work connects the organic with the digital.

Known for his innovative approach to electronic music, Agoria blends techno, house, and experimental sounds to create rich, atmospheric compositions. He releases his debut album, Blossom, in 2003 and has since produced critically acclaimed albums such as The Green Armchair (2006), Impermanence (2011), Drift (2019), .dev (2011) and Unshadow (2024). Agoria is the founder of Sapiens Records label and he is a noted film composer, with many soundtracks for films like Go Fast and Lucky.

In recent years, Agoria has expanded his creative endeavors into the realm of art, focusing on biological generative art—a practice that integrates algorithms, artificial intelligence, and data from the living world to create dynamic, evolving works. His installation {Sigma Lumina}, presented at the Musée d’Orsay in February 2024, reinterpretes classical masterpieces through this innovative approach, establishing a contemporary dialogue with historical art. This exhibition marks a significant milestone, making Agoria the first digital artist in history to showcase work in a top-tier global museum. His contributions have solidified his position as a leading figure in the evolving art landscape, where he continues to explore the intersection of art, technology, and the natural world.

Sébastien Devaud, known as Agoria, grew up in Valencin, Isère, in an artistic family—his father was an architect, and his mother a lyric singer.^[1] Surrounded by diverse music, he credits his family as key inspirations. At 12, he discovered Detroit techno with Big Fun by Inner City, which sparked his passion for electronic music.

Inspired by a Jeff Mills DJ set at 15, he taught himself to mix and, by 17, was performing at clubs, opening for Richie Hawtin and Carl Cox. ^[2] After high school, he briefly attended university but left to organize parties and work in record shops. By 23, he committed fully to music, laying the foundation for his successful career.^[3]

Agoria releases his debut LP, Influence Hivernale, in 1999 on the Kubik label, then managed by Cyrille Bonin, the future director of the Transbordeur in Lyon. Bonin described him as "an ambitious and hard-working young guy." He subsequently released tracks on various independent labels, including UMF and Future Frontier. His breakthrough came in 2001 with La Onzième Marche, initially released on the Tekmics label in a limited run of 600 copies before being reissued by PIAS.

In 2002, La Onzième Marche gained widespread recognition, receiving support from influential DJs such as Laurent Garnier and Andrew Weatherall. The track was later included on Agoria’s debut album, Blossom, released in 2003 on PIAS. The album, which featured collaborations with Tricky and Ann Saunderson (wife of Kevin Saunderson), was described as a "success" by Libération. The BBC recognized him as "a talent to watch," while Resident Advisor predicted in 2003 that audiences would "hear more of Agoria’s name in the near future." ^[4] Around this time, he was invited by Kevin Saunderson, producer of Inner City, to remix Big Fun—the first record he had ever purchased. ^[5]

Agoria releases his second album, The Green Armchair, in 2006, during the height of the minimal techno movement. ^[6] Dissatisfied with the prevailing trend, he spent two years developing the album, which featured collaborations with Neneh Cherry, Princess Superstar, and Peter Murphy of Bauhaus. That same year, he co-founded the label InFiné alongside Alexandre Cazac and Yannick Matray. The label became known for its eclectic approach, blending classical, techno, house, and world music. ^[7].

In 2008, Agoria composed his first film soundtrack for Luc Besson’s Go Fast, integrating cinematic storytelling with music. Inspired by this experience, he released the album Go Fast later that year. His fourth album, Impermanence (2011), incorporated acoustic elements and featured collaborations with Kid A, Seth Troxler, and Carl Craig. Following its release, he left InFiné to pursue independent projects. ^[8]

In 2016, he launched a new label, Sapiens Records, aimed at both releasing his own music and supporting emerging artists. His fifth album, Drift,licenced on Universal/Virgin in March 2019, has been the most successful to date. From this albums, three singles have been then accompanied by acclaimed music videos: You're Not Alone, ^[9] directed by Hernán Corera, Embrace by Jessy Moussalem ^[10] and Call of the wild by Loïc Andrieu. ^[11]

Agoria tour the biggest festival that year from Coachella, Primavera, Lowlands or we love green. That year he also started his own Ibiza residency at Blue Marlin under the same name Drift. Behind the decks the guests were as diversed as Idris Elba, Dj Harvey, David Guetta or Henrik Schwarz.^[12]

Agoria's desire to innovate the electronic music scene continues with his recent albums. In 2021, he releases .dev, his sixth studio album, which showcases his signature blend of techno and deep house, further solidifying his reputation as a pioneer in the genre. ^[13]

11 years after his first appearance at the Trans Musicales, he is back for the 2022 edition to present a festive and innovative creation called {One Life Two Bodies}, at the crossroads of art and science, being the first artist to organise a live minting experience during a music festival. ^[14]

2024 is a fundamental year for Agoria's career, including the release of Unshadow , an album that continues his exploration of electronic soundscapes, reflecting his commitment to pushing the boundaries of electronic music. This album's inspiration is about diversity, making complex things sound simpler, and sees the contribution of many different artists like Nile Rodgers and Madison McFerrin, Sacha Rudy, Dominique Fils-Aimé, together with Natalie Sade, Rami Khalife, STS and NOEMIE.^[15]

One of the singles from the album, Getaway, is then used in an innovative generative audio minting experiment. Utilising the Bronze.AI engine, the track was transformed into a dynamic, ever-evolving composition, with each minted version being unique. This experiment showcased a future where music exists in both digital and living forms. ^[16][17]. Announced in November 2024, the project quickly sold out and became the highest grossing music NFT release in the blockchain history.

In these years, Agoria gets back to touring in the best clubs in the world, but the 2024 marks two milestones in the artist's career:

• First Electronic Music Performance at the Musée d'Orsay: Agoria became the inaugural artist to exhibit and perform inside the iconic Musée d'Orsay in Paris. ^[18]
• Performance at the 2024 Summer Olympics Closing Ceremony: Agoria was among the prominent French electronic artists who performed at the closing ceremony of the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics. The event showcased a diverse lineup of musicians, celebrating France's rich electronic music scene. ^[19]

• Lyon

Agoria has been deeply involved in Lyon’s electronic music scene, a city he feels proud to represent. In 2002, shortly after releasing his debut album, he co-founded the Nuits Sonores festival alongside Vincent Carry.^[20] Agoria has performed at the festival almost every year and records his music in his Lyon studio, Circle Room.

• Detroit

Detroit techno has been a key influence on Agoria’s work. Often called an "enfant de la techno de Detroit," Agoria has built close ties with genre pioneers, visiting Detroit multiple times, including for the 2010 Detroit Electronic Music Festival, where Carl Craig and Underground Resistance introduced him to the city's cultural leaders.

Agoria's artistic vision is about connecting technology and nature. Bringing together art, music, and science, his focus on generative algorithms, AI, and biological systems have resulted in his unique art — from depicting brain cells as mysterious and galaxy-like, to exploring how plants communicate, and the repetitions of human gestures.

Phytocene is a film produced by the Oscar-winning designer Nicolas Becker, Agoria, and the biophysicist Nicolas Desprat, curated by 91.530 Le Marais and auctioned at Phillips in July 2021. Using probes placed in the soil of Le Marais, the team collected data from a hemp plant’s respiration, photosynthesis, and microscopic soil bacteria. This data was then translated into a unique video and soundscape, creating a vegetal musical composition that mirrors the plant’s full lifecycle. Phytocene’s NFT is the first to encapsulate an entire plant’s life, authenticated via blockchain, likened to nature’s interconnected systems.^[21]

In 2022, Agoria unveiled his experimental films collection Centriole on SuperRare, created with biologist Alice Meunier. The works depict the intricate, galaxy-like structures of brain cells, specifically centrioles, as vibrant, dynamic visuals. This project reflects Agoria’s vision of biological generative art, revealing the living systems within us. ^[22][23]

Through Compendia, Agoria examines human and biological generative processes. He developed a unique dataset by documenting repetitive human gestures, such as the remnants of posters on walls during his DJ tours.^[24] After constructing this dataset, the next phase involved identifying patterns and similarities with living organisms. Johan Lescure played a crucial role in this process, utilizing algorithmic techniques to uncover hidden structures within the data. By manipulating algorithms to expose details beyond human visual perception, the analysis revealed forms and patterns strikingly similar to those found in living systems, giving lights to the new colleciton {Compend-AI}. ^[25]

The installation {Le Code d’Orsay}, created for Le Musée d’Orsay, reimagines classical works through the lens of AI and generative algorithms, offering a modern dialogue with historical art. The exhibition, the first one in history presented by a digital artist, open to the public during February and March 2024 with more than 100K visitors, presented two works. ^[26][27][28]

• Ʃ LUMINA

This sculpture paves towards digital works of art, in which the visitor takes part by blowing. Its shadow offers up a QR code granting access to digital works of art that evolve according to how each visitor blows a breath of air. These digital pieces are created from a selection of masterpieces from the museum’s collections, chosen by the artists, Agoria and Johan Lescure.

• Saccharomyces cerevisiae’s interpretation of Gustave Courbet’s L’Atelier du peintre

This creation considers the topic of memory and transmission, the result of a work of curation and retranscription of a biological yeast growing experiment (Saccharomyces cerevisiae). The conditions for growing the yeast mimic the great historic events that took place during the painter’s life. The data resulting from the experiment are used to enhance The Painter's Studio. The digital piece breathes life into Gustave Courbet’s painting, revealing its living nature. In collaboration with scientists Nicolas Desprat, Jean-Baptiste Boulé, Manuel Théry and Julien Mozziconacci.

Agoria has collaborated with the renowned artist Philippe Parreno, celebrated for his groundbreaking installations and conceptual works, on significant exhibitions, including Armory Park (New York City, 2015), Hangar Bicocca (Milan, 2015), and Tate Modern's Turbine Hall (together with Nicolas Becker, London, 2016). Agoria's immersive sound design seamlessly integrated with Parreno's visionary artistic narratives, enhancing the sensory depth of the installations and creating a cohesive, multi-dimensional experience for audiences.^[29]

• {Compendia+} (2019 - ongoing)
• {Centriole} (2022 - ongoing)
• {Compend-AI} (2022 - ongoing)
• {Σ Lumina} The Convergence of Breath (2024)
• {Getaway} (2024)

• Forum on Embracing the Metaverse, United Nations, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (2023) ^[30]
• {Le code d’Orsay}, Musée d'Orsay, Paris (2024) ^[31]
• NFT Paris (2024,2025)
• BIG 2024, BPI France, Paris (2024) ^[32]
• Artificial Intelligence Action Summit, Élysée, Paris (2025) ^[33]

Main articles: Agoria discography

• Blossom (2004)
• The Green Armchair (2006)
• Go fast (2008)
• Impermanence (2011 - Sapiens)
• Drift (2019)
• .dev (2021)
• Unshadow (2024)

• Go Fast (2008)
• Mère Océan (2016)
• Vape Wave (2016)
• The Show (2018)
• Lucky (2020)
• Veuillez nous excuser pour la gêne occasionnée (2023)

• Cute & Cult (2005)
• At The Controls (2007)
• Balance 016 (2010)
• Fabric 57 (2011)
• RA.229 (2012)
• Benga Benga (2013)
• Essential Mix BBC (2020)
• Le Code d’Orsay - DJ Mix (2024)

• Agoria artist's website