Michael Canitrot, Who Played the Reopening of Notre-Dame, Takes Us Inside His DJ Set

It was a très joyeux occasion for Paris and the world beyond this past Dec. 7, when the city’s Notre-Dame Cathedral reopened its doors after a five-year closure, which followed a 2019 fire which burned through the building’s roof. After years of rebuilding and renovations, the 860-year old Gothic cathedral has been restored to new glory.

This past weekend, celebrities and politicians including First Lady Jill Biden and President Elect Donald Trump traveled to Paris for the reopening of Notre-Dame, which included prayer, religious rites and speeches, including one from French President Emmanuel Macron.

Also, there was techno.

A series of musical performances featured artists including Pharrell (who sang his 2013 hit “Happy”), French singer Garou, famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma, Gustavo Dudamel conducting the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and French electronic producer Michael Canitrot. His 10-minute set in front of the soaring cathedral included his own tracks “Light Odyssey” and “Niteroi,” along with an unreleased production called “Icon” and a remix of Moby‘s 1991 classic “Go.” 

“It was incredible, you could feel the emotion in all the artists,” Canitrot tells Billboard. “And as an electronic music artist, it was also a great opportunity to meet other artists like the violinist Gautier Capuçon or Pharrell, who played just before me with a 60-strong choir.”

See video and exclusive photo from the performance below.

Canitrot is well-acquainted with playing in the presence of historic buildings. His ongoing performance series, Monumental, has included sets in front of structures like the Eiffel Tower, the Notre-Dame
of Laon cathedral in northern France and nearly 20 other architecturally and culturally signifiant buildings, largely in France, with some funding by the French National Commission for UNESCO.

With these shows, Canitrot presents historic monuments in futuristic ways, using electronic music, lights and video mapping to create immersive experiences that Canitrot says “resonate with both electronic music audiences and the wider public.” His track record with conceptualizing and pulling off these shows “certainly played an important role in securing the Notre-Dame gig,” he says.

He and his team from Monumental, made of roughly 30 visual designers, lighting experts, technical producers and more, worked for months to make this show perfect. The focus was, he says, “on paying tribute to the greatness of Notre-Dame while offering a show that highlights electronic music and heritage.”

The pressure was high for the show, especially as Canitrot had to play it without rehearsing, given that his rehearsal was cut short by heavy winds the night prior. “That’s always quite stressful on such an important and technical show,” he says, “but in the end everything went well.”

Although his performance was relatively brief, Canitrot accomplished a lot in ten minutes. His performance was sequenced into visual and sonic chapters that went through themes of architectural renaissance and honoring builders from the past and present, then nodded to life and elevation via plant-inspired visuals, then paid homage the the cathedral’s new reliquary before shifting to a message of universal peace. These visuals were created in collaboration with Canitrot’s teams at Monumental Tour, AVExtended, and frequent collaborators Jérémie Bellot, and François Deretz, who altogether brought created music and visuals that bathed the famous cathedral in swirling lights and lasers.

With this performance, Canitrot not only added a globally significant performance to his resume, but helped expose electronic music to those who may not often hear it.

“I’ll always remember the moment when, at the end of my set, one of the church officials came to congratulate me,” he says. “To be able to play [electronic] music at such a moment was really important for me, it puts it on the same level as all other music and continues to democratize it for a wider audience.”