Julian Franks: Beyond Face And Name

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‘Beyond Face And Name’ is a brand new remix by Earth Loop taken from the Julian Franks’s world fusion album ‘Jewel In The Lotus’. The album has been bubbling for the past 12 months collecting a huge army of supporters from Benjamin Zephaniah, Al Scott, Record Producer (Asian Dub Foundation, The Oyster Band, The Levellers), Dave Meegan, Record Producer ( U2 on Joshua Tree, Rattle & Hum, and producer of Marillion’s new album). Julian’s also collected excellent reviews from Paul Elliot, writer for Q Magazine and MOJO, picking up great quotes from The Barefoot Doctor to Acid rocker Arthur Brown along the way. The album was created as a response to a personnel journey which Julian took while travelling through India and Nepal, Julian’s background in art and photography has captured this captivating journey which is now being made into a DVD to run alongside the album.

The Jewel album features a host of vocalists and musicians from the UK, France, Tibet, India and Canada. "I am lucky to live in a city like Brighton in the UK which is so rich in talent and cultural diversity. I have singers like Soname from Tibet, singer song writer Hanna Burchell, guitarist Enrick Adam from France, didgeridoo player Phil Jackson from Canada, and flautist Ashok Kumar Mehta from India, to name just a few, that I can call on."

Born in London, Julian started drumming early - he had his own drum kit by age 9 and was introduced to the world of jazz & live music by his father. Julian took his first Tabla lesson in Southall, London with Ismail Sheikh. Sheikh himself was a student of Alla Rakha, Ravi Shankar’s long time Tabla player and father of Zakir Hussain.

There is a impressive list of musical credits which Julian has also been involved over the years performing with Nick Pynn, Steve Harley's Cockney Rebel, as part of Arthur Brown's 'Crazy World of Arthur Brown' and with Jambience at Peace One Day (2002, 2003) supporting Faithless, Starsailor, One Giant Leap, Jimmy Cliff, Dave Stewart (Eurythmics), and the Festival of Flight supporting Nitin Sawney.

The Afro Caribbean music circuit who are funded by the British Arts Council have got behind the album organizing UK tour which will begin next spring and will take the ‘The Jewel In Lotus’ project across the UK at festivals and Art centers, a show that will be a sonic and visual epic!

The brilliant new remix that has just been completed by Earth Loop is rocking on the tribal house edge, and is taken from the ‘Beyond Face And Name’ track on the album. The new single has two brand new mixes plus the original cut which has shades of Faithless to give you some idea of the quality.

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