>> FRANCOIS AND THE
ATLAS MOUNTAINS - "Plaine Inondable" - September 2009
Frànçois came to Bristol from France in September
2003. He drew a picture and put a note in a window announcing
his arrival, and asking people to make music with him. He started
going to car-boot sales to find some instruments he could use.
Overnight, Frànçois won the hearts out of this town. Well of
course, he’s a sweet kid, but he’s also armed with an eager
sense of adventure and a keen taste for pop thrills.
In January 2004 he played his first live show,
taking to the stage alone, making use of keyboards (played with
his foot), a guitar, live samples and a drum machine, mixing
playful and experimental ideas with his natural pop-tune sensibilities
and sweet bilingual vocals. The string of live performances
he has since played has all been eagerly anticipated and utterly
charming. Musically, you could say he is reminiscent of STEREO
TOTAL, VELVET UNDERGROUND, HOOD, and FRANÇOISE HARDY and yet
he is also like nothing else at all.
In 2008 Fránçois took a break and went back
to live with his parents in France with the intention to stop
the music side of things and to hide behind his brushes and
watercolour paints. There he found support from a bunch of local
friends who convinced him to do some recordings of the works
he had prepared for a show in Paris at the Centre Pompidou.
The recordings of “Plaine Inondable” took place partly in Charente-Maritime
and partly in the Basques Country. For those sessions the musicians
were the polyphonic quintet Bost Gehio and members from Unkle
Jelly Fish.
