From Marseille 🇫🇷 and living in Berlin 🇩🇪
Playing/recording some music or busy working
Here I'll write about whatever I want, share things and parts of reality.
EN : As I'm about to upload some new materials I was curious to see a bit of statistics on my latest soundcloud account.
Not so bad, thanks for everyone's attention and time.
FR :
Comme je suis sur le point de télécharger de nouveaux morceaux, j'étais curieux de voir un peu de statistiques sur mon compte soundcloud le plus récent.
Pas si mal, merci pour votre attention et votre temps.
DE :
Während ich einige neue Materialien hochladen möchte, war ich neugierig auf ein paar Statistiken über meinen neuesten Soundcloud-Account.
Nicht so schlecht, vielen Dank für die Aufmerksamkeit und Zeit.
English :
As I've said some days ago, I'm going to share some new music
later this year. In the meantime, here are a few of some works I have been involved into since I'm living in Berlin.
I moved here in January 2012, most of these tracks are made on my own and some are collaborations.
There's even a remix or two.
French :
Comme je l'ai dit il y a quelques jours, je vais partager de nouvelles compositions plus tard cette année. En attendant, voici quelques-unes des œuvres auxquelles j'ai participé depuis que je vis à Berlin.
J'ai déménagé ici en janvier 2012, la plupart de ces titres sont réalisés par mes soins et certains sont des collaborations. Il y a même un remix ou deux.
Since about a year now I have been feeling some very good vibes of evolution on a personal level.
No revelation, no epiphany, I just took some of my free time to really look around me, to pay more attention to what actually matters instead of diving into sterile emotions.
The thing when you're getting yourself a little more laid back, you can see, think and feel on a broad higher level. Therefore, you can figure things and stuffs out with accuracy, which isn't the case when reacting at once as I could have done in several occasions before.
Well, I'm convinced of the uselessness of taking the piss out of any stupid feelings, misunderstandings or other unpleasant situations. Maybe have I come this far only because I had to, as we probably all do or should eventually. I wouldn't rush to call it a new step of maturity or just talk forever about it either, I only realise that I'm very well surrounded, which doesn't mean I don't have my share of ups and downs just like anyone else, whatever comes has simply to be handled at its best or for the better at least.
It is important to think about what matters instead or riding the bullies or even hit the crap. Nothing good comes out of such, at least when we're talking about casual behaviour and the likes. This entry isn't meant to be extremely deep or to sound like I'm preaching on crack, I do not do the latest and have no wish either for the first of these two attitudes.
I just wanted to say how thankful I am for both the slightest reasons and for the bigger ones.
Nothing is ever all this or all that, and to quote myself :
"There is no balance in excess."
In 1986 I went to see The Cure in Orange as they were playing a gig which eventually was filmed by Tim Pope and became the infamous VHS tape most of the fans know pretty well.
With my familly we moved from Marseille to Orange about 10 years before that and this concert remains one of the very best things I've enjoyed in this slightly lunatic but nice town.
Here is a picture of me on this stage taken in November 2016.
So one day I started some kind of a tribute about this time,
lots of untold memories and having some people in mind too.
In November 1987 we've met with Robert and Mary for the first time of a few, but this is going to be another entry, another day.
Here are some tracks of mine as "Orange 86", for one of these
(Lonely As A Cloud) the drum sequence is done by one of my brothers, Philippe, he actually invited me to this gig then. Besides, I've played everything heard in there.
My latest release was on Fuzz Club Records' The Reverb Conspiracy Volume III in 2015.
Since then I have been involved in a few collaborations, been working on some demos and now taking my time to record new materials with different approaches.
My goal is to release a record and I keep focus on this for the moment, so I have no hurry to share whatever new until this process is advanced enough.
I've recorded this track at home in Berlin, Jeff Levitz recorded some extra drones and his sitar playing in L.A, then I've put it all together and it has been mastered by Brett Orrison.
To talk more about this track featured on this compilation there couldn't be anything I could say much better than what has been written about it by several sources. So here are a few of these review : From Francois Sky & Guests Facebook page Published by François de Benedetti · 30 January 2015
The Reverb Conspiracy Volume 3 on Fuzz Club Records
[...] Upon reaching the final track of the collection, Francois Sky Featuring Jeff Levitz (another familiar name from The Brian Jonestown Massacre / The Warlocks), offer a moment of reflection with sitar riffs that the Gundecha Brothers would admire. The track cruises at a steady speed, bringing us back to the surface; the sound of space-travel-communication-beeps peppering the music from beginning to end. The bass serves to hypnotize the listener with its cool meandering, until the appropriately astronaut-resonant chatter signals the final stages of our arrival back to a soundless landscape. Its title, As We’ve Been As One, an appropriate summation of the overall feeling of the album. Throughout the aural experience you feel at one with the compilation’s other listeners; you feel you’ve joined a collective adding to an ever-growing greater entity. Yet you can’t help but forget its link with a psych scene that is dwarfed by the mammoth mainstream. Who cares though? Conspiracies are there to subvert the overruling powers; you’re here to keep music evil.
- Foci Magazine
[...] The Reverb Conspiracy Volume III is based on a magic spell, which takes the listener away into a world of hitherto unknown paths. The album ends with the epic song As We’ve Been As One by Francois Sky featuring Jeff Levitz; interwoven trance-like sitar melodies, a musical gentle yet powerful rolling thunder.
- Gold Music Magazine
[...] The Reverb Conspiracy Volume III liegt einem Zauber zugrunde, welcher den Zuhörer in eine Welt fernab aller bekannten Pfade lockt. Das Album endet mit dem epischen Song As We’ve Been As One von Francois Sky featuring Jeff Levitz. Ineinander verwobene tranceartige Sitar-Melodien, ein musikalisch sanftes und zugleich eindringliches Donnergrollen.
- Gold Music Magazine
[...] Francois Sky featuring Jeff Levitz, closes out this compilation with the track, ‘As We’ve Been As One’. A sitar tinged, sun soaked, reverb drenched offering, that will have you floating in a trance.
- Levitation
[...] As with any DJ worth his salt, the curators of this hand crafted compendium, having enthralled us on this supersonic roller-coaster ride, complete the assisted comedown of all comedowns with a worthy finale.
‘As We’ve Been As One’, courtesy of the enigmatic Berlin based François Sky, featuring sitar guru Jeff Levitz, envelops and cushions with a pulsatingly sumptuous splashdown in the Sea of Tranquility…
- Backseat Mafia / chromaticism
[...] Francois Sky wind up the release with a perfect exit song. Dreamy drone and sitar with a feel good bass and drums groove that conjurer up kaleidoscope visuals and float along into the distance.
- The Active Listener
[...] but here it signals the ride out, wonderfully supplied by François Sky on ‘As We’ve Been As One.’ Where The Oscillation’s ‘No Place To Go’ may have been a red-herring, ‘As We’ve Been As One’ is spot on, playing to the more encompassing bent here overtly in the title, and more importantly in its lengthy drape of diffusion that wraps up ‘Volume III.’
- Sunrise Ocean Bender
[...] while the whole affair closes with Francois Sky and the epic ‘As We’ve Been As One’.
- Clash Magazine
Fuzz Club Records and The Reverberation Appreciation Society
co-release The Reverb Conspiracy Volume 3,
Released on January 25th 2015"
Artwork by Jón Sæmundur Auðarson
(aka Nonni Dead) of Dead Skeletons)
Video by Psychoactiv
Tracklist:
A1. The Oscillation – No Place To Go
A2. Holy Science – Moon
A3. Deathcrush – You Now
A4. The History of Colour TV – Suddenlines
B1. Singapore Sling – You Drive Me Insane
B2. New Candys – Meltdown Corp.
B3. Sound Sweet Sound – Death Is On The way
B4. Undisco Kidd – Green Like An Alien
C1. Camera – Ausland
C2. Future – Side Effects
C3. Mugstar – Hollow Ox
C4. One Unique Signal – Tungsten
D1. Goat – Hide From The Sun (A.A.N Remix)
D2. Lola Colt – Away From The Water
D3. François Sky feat. Jeff Levitz – As We’ve Been As One.
Nicole S.
Barnaby Bennett, I've been actually one of his guests for his gig here.
Paul McCabe : The Mushroom Club
Jeff Levitz : ex BJM / The Warlocks
Tino Bogedaly : Mystery Art Orchestra
Roger Brogan : Spectrum / Dean Wareham
Joe Chapman : The Neon Violets
Andre Couto : 10000 Russos / dreamweapon
JP Hugues : Helicon
Stephen 'Sausage' De Sarasola, making us a great sound at #RFV14
Nathan Henderson : Sun Mahshene / Sun, Sky & Echoes
Adrian Bang : ex Aqua Nebula Oscillator
Jimmy James : The Telescopes
Allen Devine
Franz Bargmann : ex Camera
The Beatles on 'joob joob', yeah the whole band.
Jim Morrison : The Doors on 'Kaleidoscopic Flight'
Mason Fiaschi
Tim Landgren
João Martins
Vicente 'Foxtrot Sierra" : Psychedelic Schafferson Jetplane
Fabien D.
Satch Hoyt
Daniel Borg : BlackFawn
Beth Rettig : Blindness
I moved from South of France to Berlin, Germany, in January 2012 and I'm still based here as we speak.
I've started this "Francois Sky & Guests" kind of band to consolidate, somehow, what I was doing under one only name as I got tired to have way too many names out there.
Concerts as Francois Sky & Guests :
#1/ 30/07/14 Opening for Dean Wareham, PrivatClub Berlin. With Tino B.
PrivatClub, Berlin
#2/ 5/09/14 London Water Rats for Goodsouls Promotions & Northern Star Records on Kontakte new album release party, with 93MMFTS. With Tino B., Joe Chapman (The Neon Violets).
Water Rats, London
#3/ 12/09/2014 Reverence Valada, PT.
With Tino B., Andre Couto (Dreamweapon/10 000 Russos, Portugal) and JP H. (Helicon, Glasgow).
Reverence Valada 2014 day 1
Reverence Valada 2014 day 2
I had to turn down / cancel a few gigs along the way as, for some reasons, it would have been complicated to play these. Sometimes life gets in the way, you know it, and there are both primary and secondary priorities.
So far, just under this name, there are many tracks released on labels/blogs/compilations/records like The Active Listener, Mind Expansion, TBTCI, Fuzz Club Records and too many to mention, from Japan to Brazil and Sweden to Wherethefuckaboutistan.
I'm not so keen on playing live too often and I do my very best to not be depending on my music to have a decent life. It's just a choice of mine, I've been on both side of this fence and really prefer to not have to worry too much about the casual things, so for that, a regular job helps a lot.
This said, I'm recording some new things since a while and just wait for the right moment to put it out there.
I am Francois Georges Antoine de Benedetti, using the name "Sky" for reasons of mine.
To save time and pay respect to some of my good friends and other unknown people, here are some of their words about me of mostly about what I'm doing in the music field since 2012.
In there, it will be about life, me, some friends, collaborations and even some interview things.
François has been making music for as long as he can remember.
Originally from France, but now based in Berlin, he takes his musical influences from a whole variety of people, his family, his roots and his beliefs.
To define his music would take too long, but with kraut to shoegaze it's all good!
- Mike, London, UK.
These are but only a few, you can google my name as well and you'll find much more.
Next entry will be more about reviews but it will be for another day.
