Nick Franglen
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Nick Franglen (born 1965) is a British musician, record producer and installation artist. He is best known as a founding member of the electronic music duo Lemon Jelly.
A classically trained musician and multi-instrumentalist, during the 1990s Franglen played keyboards, electronic instruments and drum programming on studio recordings with Björk, Primal Scream, Hole, Pulp and Blur, amongst others.[1] As well as co-writing all of Lemon Jelly's music, he produced their first self-released recordings in 1997, and went on to produce all three Lemon Jelly albums released on XL Recordings. He also has produced records for other musicians, including John Cale,[2] Badly Drawn Boy,[3] Mark Fry and Colin MacIntyre. He has remixed tracks for Coldcut[4] and Mark Mothersbaugh[5] of Devo.
Franglen has composed extensively for film and television, including the music for the BBC series Restoration, and the BAFTA nominated animated film Soho Square. In 2007, he collaborated with his Lemon Jelly partner Fred Deakin to compose the music for Inventions of the Abstract, an hour-long film of abstract dynamic graphics. Franglen and Deakin performed this music live at the London Imax cinema in London as part of the 2007 Optronica Festival.[6]
Live performance
Franglen developed a lasting connection with John Cale following his production of Cale's album Hobo Sapiens, and has performed live with him many times. In 2003, he accompanied Cale on Later... with Jools Holland, playing a hand pumped harmonium.[7] In 2005 he played keyboards and electronics with Cale and Flea of Red Hot Chili Peppers at the Royal Festival Hall at Patti Smith's Meltdown Festival.[8] In 2010, Franglen performed with Cale at the Melbourne Festival 2010, and mixed the live sound of Cale's Venice Biennale artwork, Dark Days, when this was installed in Essen for RUHR.2010.
Since 2008, Franglen has been the musical director of Nico - A Life Along the Borderline,[9] the John Cale curated tribute shows to the singer Nico, featuring performances by a variety of artists including Mark Lanegan, Mark Linkous, Mercury Rev, Lisa Gerrard, Peter Murphy, Guillemots, Laetitia Sadier and Joan As Policewoman in shows in London, Ferrara, Wroclaw and Rome.[10]
In 2011, Franglen acted as musical director for psychedelic folk musician Mark Fry, performing at a concert in London featuring members of Mercury Rev, Super Furry Animals, and Tunng.
Since 2007, Franglen has collaborated with Charles Casey of Akasha in guitar-based electronic duo Blacksand, releasing the album Barn in March 2008.[11] Blacksand are notable for the unusual locations in which they perform their extended live improvisations, which include down a mine, inside a submarine and inside Pyestock, an abandoned scientific testing facility.
