Franck Biyong

Cameroon

Yaounde

Rock

Experimental

African

Music list

LIYOMBA CHURCH
Alternative Rock
03:44
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END OF THE ROAD
Alternative Rock
04:19
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MISSION OF THE SUN
04:17
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About Franck Biyong

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Franck Biyong

6 years ago

EVENING PRAYER - Out March 16th 2018

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

Albums

END OF THE ROAD

MOONWATCHING

LIYOMBA CHURCH

Songs

LIYOMBA CHURCH
Alternative Rock
03:44
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END OF THE ROAD
Alternative Rock
04:19
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MISSION OF THE SUN
04:17
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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.