Florent Derex is a founding member of the artistic collective Le Balcon, as well as of the record label B Records. Initiated very young to the cello, he will then train, after scientific studies, in Sound Engineering at the Paris Conservatory – CNSMP -.

Le Balcon’s commitment is mainly focused on the creation and interpretation of all repertoires with amplified instruments. Florent is in charge of the management and development of the company since its creation in 2008, together with the conductor Maxime Pascal.

Within Le Balcon as a sound engineer, he specializes in the sound amplification of acoustic and electronic music. Coming from a generation which naturally integrated the loudspeaker as a musical and aesthetic tool, Florent works on questions of sound projection. This notion, a legacy of certain composers of the second half of the 20th century, testifies to the importance of the specifically spatial aspect of the composition, of which Le Balcon has made a diligent performer.

Over time, Florent is therefore led to think of all kinds of immersive sound setup – multichannel, WFS, ambisonic, binaural –

With Le Balcon, Florent produces shows from a repertoire spanning all periods of musical history, with a predilection for music from the 20th and 21st centuries. In seven years spent at the Théâtre de l’Athénée in Paris, he produced – regularly in co-production with the Opera de Lille – operas and shows, such as Ariane à Naxos by Strauss, Le Balcon by Eötvös based on Genet, La Métamorphose by Levinas based on Kafka, Jakob Lenz by Rihm as well as numerous creations with composers such as Arthur Lavandier, Pedro Garcia Velasquez, Sivan Eldar.

In 2018, Le Balcon began a shift towards larger shows, in particular with the start of production of Licht, a colossal operating cycle – 7 operas, 29 hours of music – by the German composer Stockhausen. Donnerstag premiered in 2018 at the Opéra Comique in Paris and then performed at Southbank Center in London. It was followed by Samstag in 2019 and Dienstag in October 2020 at the Philharmonie de Paris as part of the Festival d’Automne.

Florent founded in 2013 B Becords, label dedicated exclusively to the live record, distributed by Naïve then by Outhere. He has also set up a record label and musical publishing for Le Balcon.

Florent is currently in residence at the Singer-Polignac Foundation.