Biography
Cameroonian artist Franck Biyong, who leads the ensemble Massak, originated the “Afrolectric” aesthetic that fuses Afrobeat with forward-looking jazz and electro-charged funk.
Born in Cameroon during 1973, Biyong spent his childhood traveling across West Africa, residing at different times in Nigeria, Gabon, and the Ivory Coast.
He took up music early, beginning on piano before shifting his primary focus to drums and other percussion instruments.
When Biyong turned fourteen, his family relocated to Europe, opening the door to broader musical studies; in France he joined a group on bass while still developing his technique and started laying down initial demos shaped by Fela Kuti, the electric period of Miles Davis, Sun Ra, Prince, and additional sources.
After mailing those recordings to various French and English companies, he found greater interest from the English side and moved there, working as a session player and composer principally with the Lumen imprint.
During the closing years of the 1990s the rising British electronica movement drew his attention, yet Kuti’s death in 1997 prompted another redirection; Biyong returned to France and, taking the Nigerian “Black President” as a model, began constructing an original hybrid that integrated all his earlier influences into a fresh configuration.
He established the Afrolectric Music label, and its first release, Realms of Atlantis, appeared in 2006 featuring an expansive ensemble; Biyong composed, arranged, produced, sang, and performed on multiple instruments throughout the sessions.
His second album, Haiti Market, came out as a joint project between Le Son de Maquis and Afrolectric Music, employing a somewhat reduced lineup while Biyong added mixing engineer to his credits.
Spirits Into Sound followed in 2008 on Afrolectric Music and adopted a harder, more propulsive character than the preceding pair, serving as the model for subsequent projects such as Rhythms of Our Memory in 2009.
In 2010 Biyong issued two contrasting statements: Visions of Kamerun, captured in his native country and highlighting longstanding cultural links between Cameroon and France with mixing assistance from Grant Phabao of Paris DJs, and the live set Voodoolectric Ground, which braided his admiration for Jimi Hendrix, Davis, and modal jazz into a single performance.
Meeting the Basic Needs of the People, released in 2011, looked both backward and forward by locking electronic textures to contemporary Afrobeat and raw urban funk, foreshadowing the Afro-opera Knowledge Identity Reconstruction staged in Paris; its score appeared the following year under the title Jazz & Africa: Knowledge Identity Reconstruction.
Ki i Ye Yi appeared under the name Biyong and the Diamane Bantu Messengers, essentially a reconfiguration of Massak that enlisted help from Paris DJs, who co-issued the recording with Afrolectric Music.
The 2013 album 21.12.2012 (Truth or Lies?) assembled many longtime associates across varied ensemble formats, and that same year Biyong released a 12-inch single interpreting Fela’s “I.T.T. (International Thief Thief).”
He continued in 2014 with the single “Liyomba,” supported solely by keyboardist and programmer Wanyoike Kimani together with backing vocalist Millie Assagi.
Born in Cameroon during 1973, Biyong spent his childhood traveling across West Africa, residing at different times in Nigeria, Gabon, and the Ivory Coast.
He took up music early, beginning on piano before shifting his primary focus to drums and other percussion instruments.
When Biyong turned fourteen, his family relocated to Europe, opening the door to broader musical studies; in France he joined a group on bass while still developing his technique and started laying down initial demos shaped by Fela Kuti, the electric period of Miles Davis, Sun Ra, Prince, and additional sources.
After mailing those recordings to various French and English companies, he found greater interest from the English side and moved there, working as a session player and composer principally with the Lumen imprint.
During the closing years of the 1990s the rising British electronica movement drew his attention, yet Kuti’s death in 1997 prompted another redirection; Biyong returned to France and, taking the Nigerian “Black President” as a model, began constructing an original hybrid that integrated all his earlier influences into a fresh configuration.
He established the Afrolectric Music label, and its first release, Realms of Atlantis, appeared in 2006 featuring an expansive ensemble; Biyong composed, arranged, produced, sang, and performed on multiple instruments throughout the sessions.
His second album, Haiti Market, came out as a joint project between Le Son de Maquis and Afrolectric Music, employing a somewhat reduced lineup while Biyong added mixing engineer to his credits.
Spirits Into Sound followed in 2008 on Afrolectric Music and adopted a harder, more propulsive character than the preceding pair, serving as the model for subsequent projects such as Rhythms of Our Memory in 2009.
In 2010 Biyong issued two contrasting statements: Visions of Kamerun, captured in his native country and highlighting longstanding cultural links between Cameroon and France with mixing assistance from Grant Phabao of Paris DJs, and the live set Voodoolectric Ground, which braided his admiration for Jimi Hendrix, Davis, and modal jazz into a single performance.
Meeting the Basic Needs of the People, released in 2011, looked both backward and forward by locking electronic textures to contemporary Afrobeat and raw urban funk, foreshadowing the Afro-opera Knowledge Identity Reconstruction staged in Paris; its score appeared the following year under the title Jazz & Africa: Knowledge Identity Reconstruction.
Ki i Ye Yi appeared under the name Biyong and the Diamane Bantu Messengers, essentially a reconfiguration of Massak that enlisted help from Paris DJs, who co-issued the recording with Afrolectric Music.
The 2013 album 21.12.2012 (Truth or Lies?) assembled many longtime associates across varied ensemble formats, and that same year Biyong released a 12-inch single interpreting Fela’s “I.T.T. (International Thief Thief).”
He continued in 2014 with the single “Liyomba,” supported solely by keyboardist and programmer Wanyoike Kimani together with backing vocalist Millie Assagi.
Albums
