Biography
Julien Ledru lives in Paris, France. His solo records are collections of instrumental folk and fingerpicking songs.
Originally a drum player in bands such as The Ready-Mades (2015-2024), The Girls (2004-2005), din_mark (2002-2004), Julien began playing solo acoustic guitar music influenced by Glenn Jones, John Fahey, Elizabeth Cotten, Mississippi John Hurt in 2018.
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Along the Road I Had Traveled was released on vinyl in 2019 in partnership with Microcultures. A Découvrir Absolument sees it as "an intimate and precious record (...), trips like this are precious and rare".
White Oak Blues, released in 2020 on Marjan Records, deepens further the melancholy furrow of the blues.
Julien Ledru's third album, "Mellotone Valley", written between 2020 and 2022, was released in 2023. Recorded by Guillaume Charret (Yules) at Under Roofs studio in Besançon, France, this album takes its name from a Duke Ellington standard: "In a Mellow Tone" (also known as "In a Mellotone"). And it is indeed a mellow tone, a peaceful breath articulated around the strings of Julien's folk guitar, that flows through the pieces of this record.
"French American Primitive guitar? Sure! Transmitted to us from Paris, Julian Ledru’s playing is sparkling and crisp, whether on guitar or banjo (and occasional synth). He often brings to mind the Windham Hill masters of days gone by—but at least part of his inspiration for White Oak Blues comes from a fairly distant source: Daniel Johnston. Not that Ledru sounds like Johnston, really, but his touching elegy for the late singer-songwriter, “Daniel Variations,” conjures up that fragile spirit."
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Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.