Face2Face: Laurent Garnier on Radio, Curation and Cutting Through the Flood

From his lifelong obsession with radio to the flood of new music, the problems surrounding sonic nostalgia, and his decision to play fewer shows with more meaning, Laurent Garnier reflects on what still keeps him moving after four decades in the booth.

Cameron Holbrook

1 min •

Jul 28, 2026

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Face2Face is an interview series spotlighting artists, labels, promoters, and key voices across the global electronic community. Each session goes beyond the headlines, unpacking creative process, cultural impact, industry realities, and the ideas shaping dance music’s future.

In this edition of Face2Face, Beatport’s head of curation Raphael Pujol (aka The Checkup) sits down with Laurent Garnier, the French DJ, producer, radio host, and long-running electronic music figure whose life in music has always been driven by one thing above all else: discovery.

Garnier spends part of the conversation talking about Deep Search, his monthly FIP radio show, and the plain fact that there is too much music coming out for anyone to keep up with properly. Radio, for him, is not just a DJ set with no crowd in front of it. It is quieter than that, more personal, a place where he can move from house and techno into bass, jazz, hip-hop, rock or ambient if the sonic thread fits.

He also has little patience for nostalgia. Music has to keep shifting, or what is the point? That thinking runs through his DJ sets, and projects like his fabric presents Laurent Garnier series – four extensive V/A compilations that take you on a journey though house, indie dance, electronica, drum & bass, 140, techno, breaks, UK garage, and everything in-between. The interview also gets into why he is taking fewer gigs now, choosing the ones that still mean something, and leaving space for theatre work, orchestral ideas, COD3 QR releases and whatever else still feels worth chasing.