by Michal “Local Kid” Cupid

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 have 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.

He has also plays trumpet onstage with fellow Bristol bands MOVIETONE (Domino) and CRESCENT (Fat Cat) and skateboard onstage with HEADFALL (Spazoom). His new album, "Les Anciennes Falaises" is released on CD-r by Stitch-Stitch in August 2004. He also draws and makes a photocopied zine of his diaries, ‘Livre’.

In 2005 he gathered a band of friends, 'The Atlas Mountains' and recorded a more ambitious album realeased in february 2006 on vinyl by stitch stitch. press sheet

"Les Anciennes Falaises"
august2004.
stitch004.

This album is made of 10 tracks composed, performed & recorded by Frànçois between April and June2004. Everything has been made in Bristol.
There's a lot of Casio keyboards on it, but also some guitars, (prepared-) piano, samples, trumpet and baby accordion... Virpie who played most of the gigs around this time with Frànçois recorded a violin part on "En bas des marches", and Rory some harp & recorder on the interludes. "Katrina" (listen) is dedicated to The Pastels' singer. "Les Anciennes Falaises" was written on a bus coming back from Cornwall. "En Bas des marches" is a mix up of childhood memories. And "Il stragniero" 's lyrics are in Greek, French, Spanish & Italian. Buy it on Paypal £5.00 p+p.

"The people to Forget"
february2006
stitch006 (europe) / august 2006 pink004 (us)

Enlisting for the first time assistance of the cream of the city's independent music community to form the Atlas Mountains ensemble (members of Knowledge of Bugs , Whalebone Polly , Crescent and Movietone all feature), the results are a wonderful development of the playful pop sensibilities that informed his earlier material, marking a clear progression towards a richer, more confident sound.   His trademark DIY set-up is now augmented by striking arrangements of harp, melodica, clarinet and brass.   Almost orchestral in its musical flair and subtlety, Frànçois makes for a natural conductor, his infectious enthusiasm and unwavering ambition shining through the new songs. stitch006. 12"LP and cd-r. / (listen)(£9.00 p+p Europe only)for the 12"vinyl

"Frànçois et Luc-Quatre Pistes"
summer2003.

This is a split c.d. Six tracks are Luc's, they are really nice folk songs he recorded with his guitar, his radio and his metronome. The other 13 tracks are Frànçois', mostly electronica tunes. It's been recorded on a 4-track machine over the summer 2003. Aleck did the mastering. Also on it you can hear Cathrine singing (track 9&19), Aurelia laughing (track14), and Pierre shivering on a chair (track 4). It was really hot that summer, that's why you can also hear children playing in a swimming pool on track12 and the noise of a fan at the end of track 6.

" Forests Songs "
October 2006
stitch010

(includes free cd-r)

Split seven inch with Ray Rumours (Lesbo Pigs, Electrelane). Her 3 spannish guitar and ukulele tunes deals with treehouses and wolf eyes. They've been recorded in madrid. Frånçois tunes deals with forest too,there's 2 new songs and an instrumental. They were recorded on four track in the winter 2005/2006 in the yellow house. They use piano, bassdrum, junksale guitar and tin cans.

Buy it now through paypal for £4.00 including p+p

"Sleeping states/Frànçois"
june 2006 , cassette tape, yum10

a split tape with Sleeping States realeased by Undereducated records. Frànçois's side is 6 new songs recorded on 4 track in the yellow house. you can listen to "allons a la piscine" here. Rozi Plain sings on two songs and helped on some others. 3 songs are in english, 3 songs are in french.

£3 with paypal.

"The Autoroute tapes"
novembre 2004-avril 2004.
a stitch-stitch tape.

The Autoroute tapes are a collection of home recordings limited to 20 copies. They include some original songs played live and recorded with two microphones in a room on the A side. The songs are played on piano, guitar, acoustic guitar or casio. The B side is a compilation of french tunes ( Françoise Hardi, Dominique A., Erik Satie, Marie Dauphin...) from the yellow house record collection. Every tape is different and unique with tiny ink drawings in the packaging. There were only 20 of them for sale at shows but they are now all sold out.