François Kevorkian (born 10 January 1954), also known by the stage name François K, is a

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

-born, U.S.-based DJ,

producer Producer or producers may refer to: Occupations *Producer (agriculture), a farm operator *A stakeholder of economic production *Film producer, supervises the making of films **Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...

, remixer and label owner of Armenian descent, who started his career DJing in clubs such as the Paradise Garage and

Studio 54 Studio 54 is a Broadway theater and a former disco nightclub at 254 West 54th Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Operated by the Roundabout Theatre Company, Studio 54 has 1,006 seats on two levels. The theater was ...

. Kevorkian has produced and remixed work by a diverse range of musicians including The Smiths, Adam Ant,

Kraftwerk Kraftwerk (, "power station") is a German band formed in Düsseldorf in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. Widely considered innovators and pioneers of electronic music, Kraftwerk were among the first successful acts to popularize the ...

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Depeche Mode Depeche Mode are an English electronic music band formed in Basildon, Essex, in 1980. The band currently consists of Dave Gahan (lead vocals and co-songwriting) and Martin Gore (keyboards, guitar, co-lead vocals and main songwriting). Depeche ...

Diana Ross Diana Ross (born March 26, 1944) is an American singer and actress. She rose to fame as the lead singer of the vocal group the Supremes, who became Motown's most successful act during the 1960s and one of the world's best-selling girl groups o ...

Gloria Estefan Gloria Estefan (; born Gloria María Milagrosa Fajardo García; born 1 September 1957) is a Cuban-American singer, actress, and businesswoman. Estefan is a seven-time Grammy Award winner, a Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, and has been ...

and U2, and is considered one of the forefathers of

house music House is a music genre characterized by a repetitive Four on the floor (music), four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 120 beats per minute. It was created by Disc jockey, DJs and music producers from Chicago metropolitan area, Chicago' ...

Biography

François Kevorkian ( hy, Ֆրանսուա Գեւորգեան) was born and raised in France, with Armenian heritage. He played the drums in his adolescent years. He moved to the United States in 1975. At that time the competition to be a drummer was very high, so around 1976 he became a DJ in underground clubs in New York City. DJing soon became his full-time occupation, including some work at more commercial venues such as the club New York, New York in 1977. He taught himself tape editing and started making disco medleys, such as Rare Earth's "Happy Song". He was offered a role in A&R for a nascent dance

independent record label An independent record label (or indie label) is a record label that operates without the funding or distribution of major record labels; they are a type of small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels and artists are often represented ...

, Prelude Records, which allowed him to go into the studio and do remixes. His first remix, of "In The Bush" by

Musique Musique is the French word for music. Musique may also refer to: Music *Musique (disco band), a 1970s studio band produced by Patrick Adams *Musique, a British dance act consisting of Moussa Clarke and Nick Hanson best known for their 2001 song ...

, became a club and radio hit, and was followed by further hit remixes including "You're The One For Me' and "Keep On" by D-Train, and "Beat The Street" by

Sharon Redd Sharon Redd (October 19, 1945 – May 1, 1992) was an American singer from New York City. She was the half sister of Snap! singer Penny Ford. Life and career Sharon Redd was born on October 19, 1945 in Norfolk, Virginia, to Gene and Katherine Re ...

. He left Prelude in 1982, and in the same year had the most #1 singles on

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

's Dance Music Chart, including his remixes of tracks such as "Situation" by Yazoo, and "Go Bang" by

Dinosaur L Charles Arthur Russell Jr. (May 21, 1951 – April 4, 1992) was an American cellist, composer, producer, singer, and musician from Iowa, whose work spanned a disparate range of styles. After studying contemporary composition and Indian classica ...

. Kevorkian also performed as a DJ at Club Zanzibar in Newark, New Jersey during the 1980s, home to the "Jersey Sound" brand of deep house or garage house. During this time he began building his own recording studio, Axis Studios, in the same building as Studio 54. The studio soon became a major commercial operation. He stopped DJing around 1983 to focus on recording and mixing full-time, but started again in early 1990. Due to the new international popularity of dance music, he gained exposure overseas and began performing abroad. He toured Japan with Larry Levan in 1992 on the 'Harmony Tour' before Levan's death in November that year, and also appeared at London's

Ministry of Sound Ministry of Sound or Ministry of Sound Group is a multimedia entertainment business based in London with a nightclub, shared workspace and private members' club, worldwide events operation, music publishing business and fitness studio. James ...

and Fabric, Japan's Spacelab Yellow,

Ibiza Ibiza (natively and officially in ca, Eivissa, ) is a Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea off the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. It is from the city of Valencia. It is the third largest of the Balearic Islands, in Spain. Its l ...

's Pacha and Space, Italy's Angels of Love and many large festivals. In 1995, he started an eclectic independent record label, Wave Music, on which he released his own work, including the ''FK-EP'', as well as records by

Abstract Truth Abstract Truth was a progressive rock band formed in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa in 1969. The band was formed around core member Ken E Henson. Career In 1969, Ken E Henson founded the band with Mike Dickman and Pete Measroch. Abstr ...

Floppy Sounds A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, or a diskette) is an obsolescent type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined w ...

and other electronic music releases. In 1996, with partner John Davis, he launched Body&SOUL, a weekly party held every Sunday afternoon at Club Vinyl, 6 Hubert Street, playing alongside co-resident DJs Joaquin 'Joe' Claussell and Danny Krivit. The 'Body&SOUL' sound, a soulful mix of organic and spiritual dance music, led to the release of a compilation series by the same name. He continued his career as an artist, returning to a more electronic sound, and the release of his Sonar Music set in 2002 marked an edgier and more futuristic style, more closely related to Techno and Dub than the

House A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condi ...

sound he was identified with as a DJ. In 2002, he also started touring with Derrick May, playing sets together as the Cosmic Twins at Berlin's Tresor, Manchester's Sankey's Soap and London's Fabric. Kevorkian released a new compilation CD in 2006, entitled ''Frequencies''. In April 2003, he started a residency at a new weekly Monday night event in New York City called "Deep Space NYC", an eclectic night focused on

dub music Dub is an electronic musical style that grew out of reggae in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It is commonly considered a subgenre of reggae, though it has developed to extend beyond that style.Dub: soundscapes and shattered songs in Jamaican re ...

and related styles. He mixed ''Deep Space NYC Vol. 1'', a compilation featuring several of his own productions, along with Jamaican dub artists Mutabaruka and U-Roy. He also provided remixes for Moloko, Yoko Ono, Cesária Évora, Nina Simone, as well as for his own label. In 2005, he was inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame as both a remixer and DJ. Kevorkian has subsequently performed at events around the world, including Midem (France), Sónar (Spain), Global Gathering (UK), Exit Festival (Serbia),

The Big Chill Big Chill can refer to: *The Big Chill (music festival), an annual music and comedy festival held in England * ''The Big Chill'' (film), a 1983 American film directed by Lawrence Kasdan *The Big Chill at the Big House, a 2010 U.S. college ice hock ...

(UK), Bestival (UK) and Electric Picnic (Ireland).

Selected discography

As an artist

FK-EP (Wave Music) 1996

* "Time and Space" (Wave Music) 1998 * "Capricorn" (Wave Music) 2000 * "Awakening" (Wave Music) 2002 * "Enlightenment" (Wave Music) 2002 * "Road of Life" (Deep Space Media) 2007

Compilations

* ''Masterpiece: Created By François K'' (Ministry of Sound) 2008 *''Frequencies'' – 2 x CD – (Wavetec) 2006 * ''Deep Space NYC'' (vol. 1) (Deep Space Media/Wave Music) 2005 * ''Live at Sonar'' (SonarMusic) 2003 * ''Body&SOUL NYC'' (vol. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) (Wave Music) 1998–2007 * ''Deep & Sexy (vol.1)'' (Wave Music) 2001 * ''Choice: A Collection of Classics'' (Azuli) 2002 * ''Essential Mix – François K'' (London/Ffrr) 2000

Video game DJ Mix

* 'Electro-Choc', the Dance radio station in '' Grand Theft Auto IV'' (Rockstar Games) 2008

As a producer

* '' Snake Charmer'' Jah Wobble, The Edge,

Holger Czukay Holger Schüring (24 March 1938 – 5 September 2017), known professionally as Holger Czukay (), was a German musician best known as a co-founder of the krautrock group Can. Described as "successfully bridg ngthe gap between pop and the avant-g ...

, and Jaki Liebezeit (Island Records) 1983 * ''May The Cube Be With You'' Dolby's Cube 1985 * '' Species Deceases''

Midnight Oil Midnight Oil (known informally as "The Oils") are an Australian rock band composed of Peter Garrett (vocals, harmonica), Rob Hirst (drums), Jim Moginie (guitar, keyboard) and Martin Rotsey (guitar). The group was formed in Sydney in 1972 by ...

(

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

) 1985 * ''We're on the Move'' Jamaica Girls (Sire) 1985 * "Strong Enough" Loleatta Holloway (Active Records) 1992 ''co-produced with Yvone Turner and Alan Friedman'' * "Got To Be in Love" Barbara Mendes (Wave Music) 2003 ''co-produced with Eric Kupper'' * "Rootsman" U-Roy (Deep Space Media) 2005 ''co-produced with Russ Disciple''

As a mix producer

* 'So Red the Rose' Arcadia (EMI Records) 1985 * '

Electric Café ''Electric Café'' is the ninth studio album by German Electronic music, electronic band Kraftwerk, originally released in 1986. In October 2009 it was re-released under its original working title, ''Techno Pop''. The initial 1986 ''Electric C ...

(EMI Records, non-USA; Warner Bros. Records, USA) 1986 * ' Violator'

(Mute, non-USA; Sire/Reprise/Warner Bros., USA) 1990 (credited as Francois "Kervorkian", a typographical error) * 'Erasure' Erasure (Mute) 1995 * 'Blondosaurus' Rebecca (Sony Japan) 1989

As a remixer

* "In the Bush" Musique (Prelude) 1978 * "I Hear Music in the Streets" Unlimited Touch (Prelude) 1980 * "You're the One for Me" / "Keep On" / "Music" / "Walk on By" / "Misunderstanding" D-Train (Prelude) 1981–1983 * "Beat the Street" / "Never Give You Up" / "Send Your Love" / "

Can You Handle It "Can You Handle It" is a song by American singer Sharon Redd. It was released in May 21, 1980 in theaters with the Star Wars film The Empire Strikes Back as the first single from her self-titled debut album (1980). It charted on the US ''Billboa ...

" Sharon Redd 1982–1983 * "Body Music" The Strikers (Prelude) 1981 (co-mixed with Larry Levan) * "Let's Go Dancin'" Sparque (West End) 1981 * "Go Bang" Dinosaur L (Sleeping Bag) 1981 * "Kiss Me" Tin Tin (U.S. Remix) (Sire WEA Records) 1982 * " Situation" Yazoo (Mute) 1982 * "Enjoy what you do (WHAM! rap)" WHAM! (COLUMBIA) 1982 * "Two Hearts Beat As One" / "New Year's Day" U2 (Island) 1983 * " This Charming Man" The Smiths (Rough Trade) 1983 * "Dissidents" Thomas Dolby (EMI Records Ltd.) 1984 * " Tour de France" Kraftwerk (EMI – Warner Bros.) 1984 * "Lucky in Love" / "Just Another Night" Mick Jagger (Columbia) 1984 * " Blue Light (12" Mix)"

David Gilmour David Jon Gilmour ( ; born 6 March 1946) is an English guitarist, singer, songwriter, and member of the rock band Pink Floyd. He joined as guitarist and co-lead vocalist in 1967, shortly before the departure of founding member Syd Barrett. P ...

1984 * "Solid (As A Rock)" Ashford & Simpson (Capitol) 1984 * "Sleepless" King Crimson 1984 * " Eaten Alive"

(Hot Extended Dance Mix) 1985 ''co-mixed with

Ron St. Germain Ron Saint Germain (alternate spellings Ron St. Germain, Ron Saint-Germaine and similar) is an American record producer, audio engineer, and mixer born in post-war Frankfurt, Germany, into a career Air Force family. Prior to his career in music ...

'' * " Chain Reaction" Diana Ross (Special New Mix) 1985 ''co-mixed with

'' * "Experience" Diana Ross (Special Dance Mix) 1985 ''co-mixed with

'' * "Zoolookologie" Jean Michel Jarre (Disques Dreyfus France) 1985 * "Perfect Way" Scritti Politti UK 12" single ((Version)) (Virgin) 1985 * "

Shiny Toys ''Dog Eat Dog'' is the 12th studio album by the Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell, released in 1985. It was her second album for Geffen Records. As with its predecessor ''Wild Things Run Fast'', ''Dog Eat Dog'' moves away from Mitchell' ...

Joni Mitchell Roberta Joan "Joni" Mitchell ( Anderson; born November 7, 1943) is a Canadian-American musician, producer, and painter. Among the most influential singer-songwriters to emerge from the 1960s folk music circuit, Mitchell became known for her sta ...

12" single Version from the album '' Dog Eat Dog'' 1985 * "Apollo 9 (Francois Kevorkian 'Splashdown' 12" Mix)" Adam Ant 1985 * "Why Can't I Be You" / "Japanese Dream" / "Hot, Hot, Hot" / "Hey You!" / The Cure (Fiction-Elektra) 1985–1990 * "The Telephone Call" Kraftwerk (EMI/Warner Bros.) 1987 ''co-mixed with Kraftwerk and

'' * "Dirty Looks" Diana Ross (Remix Version) 1987 ''co-mixed with

'' * " Don't You Want Me"

Jody Watley Jody Vanessa Watley (born January 30, 1959) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and artist,USA Today (February 16, 1996), Best Bets: Albums Jody Watley Greatest Hits, "Few singers fired up the disco like Jody Watley who set trends ...

(MCA) 1987 * " Rent"

(Parlophone/EMI) 1987 * "My Bag" (dancing mix) Lloyd Cole and the Commotions (single b-side, Polydor) 1987 * "Forever Tonight" (Extended CD Mix)

Jan Hammer Jan Hammer () (born 17 April 1948) is a Czech-American musician, composer, and record producer. He first gained his most visible audience while playing keyboards with the Mahavishnu Orchestra during the early 1970s, as well as his film scores fo ...

(from the MCA album ''

Escape from Television ''Escape from Television'' is a compilation album by Czech-American musician Jan Hammer, released in 1987 by MCA Records. Content The album contains selected instrumental pieces composed and performed by Hammer that had been used as film score in ...

'') 1987 * "My Bag" (dancing mix)/"My Bag" (dancing dub) Lloyd Cole and the Commotions (Capitol Records) 1988 * " Personal Jesus" / " Enjoy the Silence" / " Policy of Truth" / " World in My Eyes" / "Sea of Sin"

(Mute / Sire / Reprise) 1990 * " Radioactivity" Kraftwerk (EMI/Elektra) 1991 * "Higher Love" Depeche Mode (Mute/Sire/Reprise) 1994 ''co-mixed with Goh Hotoda'' * "Get Another Plan" Abstract Truth (Wave Music) 1996 * "Tom & Joyce" Vai Minha Tristeza (Delabel) 1997 * "Tout est bleu" Ame Strong (Wave) 1998 * "Sangue De Beirona" Cesária Évora (Lusafrica / Wave) 1999 * "Expo Remix" Kraftwerk (EMI) 2000 ''co-mixed with Rob Rives'' * "

Hunter Hunting is the human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products (fur/hide (skin), hide, ...

" Dido (Arista) 2001 * "Swollen"

Bent Bent may refer to: Places * Bent, Iran, a city in Sistan and Baluchestan Province, Iran * Bent District, an administrative subdivision of Iran * Bent, Netherlands, a village in the municipality of Rijnwoude, the Netherlands * Bent County, Colo ...

(Ministry of Sound) 2001 * "Josephine" Chris Rea (Warner Bros.) 2001 ''co-mixed with Eric Kupper'' * "La La Land" Green Velvet (Music Man) 2002 ''co-mixed with Rob Rives'' * "Community" Audio Soul Project (NRK) 2002 ''co-mixed with Rob Rives'' * " Forever More" Moloko (Echo) 2003 ''co-mixed with Eric Kupper'' * " Walking on Thin Ice" Yoko Ono (Twisted) 2003 ''co-mixed with Eric Kupper'' * "Aborigine's Jam" Cirque du Soleil (Cirque du Soleil) 2003 ''co-mixed with Eric Kupper'' * "Aero Dynamik" Kraftwerk (EMI – Astralwerks) 2004 * "Welcome Dub" Herbest Moon (Soundscape) 2004 * "Disco Infiltrator"

LCD Soundsystem LCD Soundsystem is an American rock band from Brooklyn, New York, formed in 2002 by James Murphy, co-founder of DFA Records. The band comprises Murphy (vocals, various instruments), Nancy Whang (synthesizer, keyboards, vocals), Pat Mahoney (dr ...

(EMI UK) 2005 * "

Ride a White Horse "Ride a White Horse" is a song by English electronic music duo Goldfrapp. The song was written by Alison Goldfrapp, Will Gregory and Nick Batt for Goldfrapp's third album '' Supernature'' (2005). The song was inspired by the disco era nightclub ...

" Goldfrapp (Mute) 2005 ''co-mixed with Eric Kupper'' * " Talk" Coldplay (EMI UK) 2005 * "Here Comes the Sun" Nina Simone (Columbia) 2006 * "The Picture" Hubert Kah (Soundcolours) 2011

As an editor

* "Happy Song" (bootleg) Rare Earth ''(labelled as: "Happy Song And Dance") ''

References

External links

Wave Music

Deep Space NYC

RA: Resident Advisor – Francois K DJ Page

Interview & Playlist for ''Resident Advisor'', 2007

Six Million Steps FRANCOIS KEVORKIAN SPECIAL radio show from April 2009

RBMA 'fireside chat' with François K.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kevorkian, Francois 1954 births Living people People from Rodez French record producers French people of Armenian descent French DJs Post-disco musicians Deep house musicians Electronic dance music DJs