Franck Biyong
Cameroon, Yaounde
Franck Biyong 
"Florie, Israeli native London-‐based jazz-‐pop songstress and Franck, Cameroonian Afrolectric guitar wizard met through the Beyond Music platform founded by Tina Turner, which aim seeks to connect musicians from all genres and walks of life worldwide. “Silence Is Music” was conceived in a mere 11 days, inspiring these creative performers on a different route, while incorporating their individual styles and personal influences. Talented female musicians added further powerful and heartfelt instrumentation: Argentinean double bass player Lila Horovitz and Canadian cellist Tess Crowther.
The song talks about the conflicts we all experience as humans. Confrontation is part of our daily existence. The writer (as the voice of our subconscious) chooses to alleviate the torments caused by strife. Whereas we may be hurting and fighting, there is also room for dialogue and self-acceptance; the emptiness some may feel is bound to be replaced with gratitude when one dares to look at life from a different angle. Perhaps the voice that speaks to one and all is meant to help us find a way to co-existence...A path to inner peace..."
MUSICIANS
Vocals, Piano -‐ Florie Namir
Double Bass -‐ Lila Horovitz
Cello -‐ Tess Crowther
Drum Programming, Sound Effects, Talking Drum,
Congas, Keyboards, Guitars, Vocals -‐ FB
AFRICA NOUVEAU FESTIVAL 2019
Ngong Racecourse Waterfront
March 8-10th 2019 - Nairobi, Kenya
(expired link)
(expired link)
Featuring FRANCK BIYONG
March 9th 2019 - 7.00PM / 8.00PM
Main Stage - (expired link)
FESTIVAL THEME
As both science and culture suggest, Africa has long communicated with, and been related to outer world beings, with historical myths of creation and ancient civilizations connected to celestial beings, stars and outer-realm beings.
We seek to investigate the historical understanding and relationship of Africans to outer world beings and forecast an imaginary future where Africans have reconnected with these ancient knowledge systems.
Over the course of 3 days and nights, the festival seeks to produce hopeful and joyful ways of imagining Africans and their link to the worlds around them. The question we are interested in resolving is “if Africans and outer world beings re-connected, what could we learn and what could we create?”
GoodTimes Africa (Blankets & Wine / Africa Nouveau)
The Foundry Place, Raptha Road, Westlands
Cell: +254 722 734 407 or +254 781 984 457
FRANCK BIYONG - EVENING PRAYER
Out March 16th 2018
(expired link)
“What are your thoughts on corporates investing in the music industry?
Well, as far as we can remember, corporate people, corporations,
patrons of the arts, sponsorship have always been involved in the
artistic life even centuries ago in the eras of the western “renaissance”,
romanticism or classicism...
Even the great European classical music composers…A large
number of them were there in the court of the King writing operas,
symphonies or ballets designed to entertain the aristocracy and
royalty of that time...
Popular music became a large scale industry in the mid sixties last
century: That era corresponds to a particular time when the people
born during or just after the second world war had come to an adult
age and outnumbered the rest of the population in most western
countries: That’s when rock and roll and pop music begun having
such a huge impact on popular culture and therefore became an
industry based on record sales, then ticket sales, then magazines
sales, then music videos, then cd sales and so on….
I don’t think that the problem may be corporations entering the
music business because they’ve always been there: I think that a
change is needed in the way music is marketed, manufactured and
sold because the rules have changed ever since 15 or 20 years.
These companies used to gather such huge profits without knowing
what they were doing (the audiences aspirations pushed the artists
and creators forward back then, not the other way around);
Unfortunately, with the logic of standardization of mass production,
whenever a music genre started bubbling in the underground it was
immediately taken over, polished and repeated ad nauseum by record
companies all over who produced so many record of copycat bands
or talent less artists and therefore diminished the long term artistic
credibility of these sub genres
So this industry kept reproducing endlessly the same formulas that
were once successful without taking into consideration that trends
come and go and that teenage audiences turn into mature audiences
20 years later. I think the time has come for “African music” to be
really, genuinely influential to the rest of the world. Maybe it’s time
creative musicians take their destiny in their own hands and do
what the pioneers of the record industry did back then: create a
new language, a new market, seek for relevance and a new way
of nurturing the music business for themselves…”
Franck Biyong @ The Pan African Space Station
Chimurenga Library @ La Colonie – Paris, France
“Who Killed Kabila?” Exhibition
Dec 13th-Dec 17th 2017
(expired link)
credits
released March 16, 2018
BAHIEK JUNGLE, BE FUNKY, ATON GOLDEN RA SOME MORE
Drums: William Ombé
Keyboards: Michel Gagliolo
Bass: Patrick Jean Baptiste
Tenor Sax & Flute: Séverine Eouzan
Trumpet & Flugelhorn: Marc Borlet-Hote
Guitar: FB
CHARLOTTESVILLE, EBONY PRAYER
Drums: Thomas Bellon
Bass: Jean-Sebastien Viau
Percussion: David Houblon
Piano & Keyboards: Leïla Olivesi
Baritone Sax: Jon Dacuna
Trombone: Toli Almasi Reid
Trumpet & Flugelhorn: Marc Borlet-Hote
Tenor & Soprano Sax: Gerald Grandman
Guitar: FB
MOON WATCHING
Organ, Arp Solina, Trinity & Prophecy
Synthesizers: Florian Pellissier
Pads, Keyboards, Moog, Synthesizer,
Guitars, Sound Effectcs: FB
A PLACE CALLED THE MARKET
Drums: Thomas Bellon
Piano: Leïla Olivesi
Trumpet: Marc Borlet-Hote
Bass, Berimbau, Percussion, Keyboards,
Synthesizers, Fender Rhodes, Pads,
Sound Effects, Guitars: FB
DOUBLE RAINBOW
Trumpet: Marc Borlet-Hote
Percussion: Desire Nkouandou
Double Bass: Zacharie Abraham
Fender Rhodes: Mathieu Desbordes
Percussion, Keyboards, Synthesizers,
Pads, Moog, Bass, Guitars: FB
All tracks written By Franck Biyong
Except BE FUNKY written by Ronald Snijders from
his Legendary Album STRAIGHT BLACK MUSIC
-Check it out Folks-
Recorded at Toko Mc (Amsterdam), Espace Kiron (Paris)
ADA Creative Studios (Nairobi), Afrolectric Mobile Studio
Recording Engineers: Nicolas Legrand, FB
Mixed by Grant Phabao & FB @ Paris Djs Studios
Mastered by Benjamin Lafont & FB
Produced by Franck Biyong
"AFRO BIKUTSI LIVE!"
Released December 8th 2017
(expired link)
“We were booked to perform at this outdoor festival in Orleans
and as we were about to depart from Paris, our percussionist
still was nowhere to be found. We eventually had to travel
without him, as we couldn’t afford to miss either our sound
check or our performance.
Playing African Music without ANY percussion is considered to
be sacrilegious by many, even a complete blasphemy to some
(which I perfectly understand) and we weren’t that thrilled to
perform without one of the key members of our musical unit
being present.
Strangely enough, we wound up playing with more raw and
bold energy than ever and this potentially lame show turned
out to be one of our finest moments on (and off) stage.
This show was promoted and produced by Mr. Pierre Perrault
and his ABCD organization (whom we hereby thank), and
attended by probably the best and most enthusiastic crowd
we have had the experience of playing for”
DRUMS & VOCALS: Desire Nkouandou
KEYBOARDS: Brice Essomba
BASS: Maurice Biyong
LEAD & RHYTHM GUITAR: Julien Pestre
BARITONE SAX: Nicolas Sakelario
TENOR SAX: Olivier Ikeda
ALTO SAX: Alban Lico
TRUMPET: Aristide Gonçalves
BACKING VOCALS: Coralie Wembe, Sandra Ellama
RHYTHM & LEAD GUITAR, VOCALS: FB
Does the future of "Rock" Music lie in Africa now?? Well, we
do think so, as strange as it may sound...Want proof?? Fine...
Check out our cover version of Frank Zappa's "More Trouble
Everyday". Video by courtesy of © X media Kenya and © Cool
Waters Jazz & Roots Festival, Live in Nairobi on Sept 24th 2016
A short piece oh history now...
"R&B", asserts Bo Diddley in Hail! Hail! Rock and Roll (Taylor
Hackford’s biographical documentary film about Chuck Berry)
"don’t stand for nothing but rip-off and bullshit". What he, Berry
and Richard played, he continues, was called rock ’n’ roll until
Caucasians started playing it, and then suddenly "they was rock
and roll and we were R&B". And R&B meant the ghetto: it meant
cheap-jack record companies most if not all of which were white-
owned, paying miserly or nonexistent royalties. (Charles Shaar
Murray, "Crosstown Traffic: Jimi Hendrix and Post-War Pop")
How far have we come since these times? Have things really
changed? With that idea in mind, we are humbly trying to offer
an alternative to this long lasting issue. Will it be solved eventually?
Who knows how or when? 'Cause the Gary Clark Jrs and
Benjamin Bookers of this world ain't gonna change a damn thing
about this mess...
Anyhow, the Fantastic Musicians on this video are Mr Asaph
Uzele (Kenya) on the Bass and Mr Christian Kibamba (Burundi)
on the Drums
Peace and enjoy
Franck Biyong's forthcoming video LIYOMBA will be released soon..Stay tuned y'all..Peace..
Read moreSongs
About Franck Biyong
FRANCK BIYONG
Africa’s 21st Century Rock Guitar Hero
Growing up in Gabon, Nigeria and Ivory Coast before settling in the UK at age 14, Franck Biyong lived in households filled with good music. Little wonder why, at 47, the towering Cameroonian artist is a composer, arranger, lyricist, guitar player, singer, band leader, sound engineer and producer. This master of musical interpretation recalls African-American Jazz guitarist, Wes Montgomery’s
“Canadian Sunset” as the song that set him down his musical path as a pre-teen.
Franck went on to cultivate a personal and passionate relationship with music, recognizing it as “spiritual food for the soul”. Receiving musical instruction and training at the National Institute of Arts in Abidjan (Ivory Coast), he scorched a brilliant path with his electric guitar and became a reporter of human emotions and feelings. Franck translated these experiences into several Afro Beat and Afro Jazz albums that made people move, laugh, dance, cry and meditate.
He has played at countless spots around the globe including SOB's in New York and the Jazz Café in London. Franck has also enjoyed European tours with music legends such as Nigerian master drummer, Tony Allen and Ghanaian Highlife guitarist, Ebo Taylor. Franck has also worked with Wyclef Jean, as well as Salif Keita, King Sunny Ade and Seun Anikulapo Kuti during his time as Music Director on Coke Studio Africa
Season 1 & 2.
But Franck Biyong, a consummate performer and creator, has reinvented himself.
In 2016, Franck shared his vision for Alternative Afro-Electro-Rock and Crossover Music with the release of LIYOMBA. This exciting single mines the link between rock and electro with dazzlingly good results. Clever use of Swahili lyrics makes it immediately familiar with fans in East Africa and the rest of the continent for whom this Bantu language resonates with many of their own.
This is in line with the Pan-African ideals underpinning Franck’s new sound. And, one of two logical evolutions of African Music; the other being creating musical forms that would appeal to diverse audiences regardless of their age and knowledge about new types of African music: “We have to adapt to change, not to dissolve totally our identity and unique approach to music, but to bridge the gap between where we were and where we should go.”....And, Franck is leading the pack.
Having been a musician for over a decade and with diverse influences and references (from Prince Nico Mbarga to Frank Zappa), Franck serves as a “filter” through which two different streams are passing. The first stream is represented by music of the past generation that he hopes to pass on to the next; stretched out, revamped and modernized. While the second is the modern urban sounds that he plans to incorporate, develop and confront—working with musical forms that do not belong together in the first place.
Another aspect of Franck’s futuristic idea of African Music is defined by artistic independence and total freedom of expression. This is a marked departure from the current strong push towards commercialization of music. Franck believes that when artists are free then they can truly explore the complex and scary realms of human sensibility and emotion.
Perhaps this is what will herald crossover exposure and success on the international scene. And, what may finally alter the perception of African Music
and its musicians at large.
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Past Events
Fri
Jun 02
8:00 PM
All Ages
Treehouse Club
Kenya, Nairobi, 8901 International Casino Complex, Museum Hill, Westlands
Sat
Mar 09
7:00 PM
All Ages
Africa Nouveau festival 2019
Kenya, Nairobi, Ngong Racecourse Waterfront, 00100
Tue
Sep 10
10:00 PM
All Ages
La Petite Halle de la Villette
France, Paris, 211 avenue Jean Jaures,, 75019 Paris
Fri
Dec 06
9:00 PM
All Ages
La Petite Halle de la Villette
France, Paris, 211 avenue Jean Jaures, 75019 Paris
