Frédéric Galliano

Born on 23 December 1969 in Grenoble, France, Galliano works as a DJ, producer and remixer who fuses West African roots elements with current strains of dance music. After spending three years performing on drums and keyboards inside a jazz ensemble, he turned to DJing. Late-night broadcasts on French State radio introduced him to African music, where he gravitated toward the raw, traditional approach of singers such as Oumou Sangaré. To stock his sets with updated, floor-ready African material, he began creating remixes of such recordings. Establishing the Frikyiwa label—pronounced Freaky Wah—he issued a run of 12-inch singles showcasing West African performers. The material came from the archives of the esteemed Paris-based world-music imprint Cobalt and received reworkings from an array of dub, house and drum ’n’ bass DJs. Neba Solo appeared on the label’s debut release, with Galliano handling one side and Jeff Sharel the other. Thereafter Galliano limited his involvement to artistic direction, selecting both the source track and its remixer. Even so, Frikyiwa cultivated a distinct sonic identity in which the original African components and the electronic dance rhythms remained equally prominent and unaltered. Nine of the 12-inch tracks were gathered on the compilation Frikyiwa Collection 1, which featured notable reworkings of pieces by Nahaw Doumbia and Lobi Traoré, and a second volume of remixes soon followed.