Francois K

Based in New York since 1975, François K, born François Kevorkian in France to a family of Armenian origin, trained initially as a drummer before moving behind the turntables in New York clubs in the late 1970s. His career spans disco, post-disco, garage, house, dub and techno, with a mixing approach focused on duration, rhythmic tension and the intersections between African American music, European electronic music and reggae dub. After beginning as a DJ at venues such as Studio 54 and the Paradise Garage, François K developed editing and remix work for Prelude Records and in the 1980s produced versions for artists including Musique, D-Train, Yazoo, Kraftwerk, Depeche Mode, Diana Ross and The Smiths. He opened Axis Studios in New York, spent time concentrating on studio mixing, and revived an international DJ career in the early 1990s. François K founded the label Wave Music in 1995, launched the Body&SOUL party in 1996 with Danny Krivit and Joe Claussell, and later started Deep Space NYC in 2003, a project more oriented toward dub and electronic music. His discography under his own name includes FK-EP (1996), Time and Space (1998), Capricorn (2000), Live at Sonar (2003) and Frequencies (2006).