Birth name: Francis Rimbert
Birth place: Neuville sur Oise (40km north of Paris) France
Birth Date: 3, October 1952
Sun sign: Libra
Chinese sign: Dragon
Lucky number: 8
Height: 173 cm
Weight: 55 kg
Education: Conservatory of Paris, Prix de Piano
Prizes: 1 st Price of Instrumental Music on Synthesizer, Tokyo 1990
& Grand Prix du Festival Audiovisuel d’Enterprise (the album FR2)
The most precious: The family
Favorite art: Music
Favorite music: Soundtracks by Hans Zimmer, Ennio Morricone & Francois de Roubaix
Favorite classical artist/music: Liszt & Chopin
Favorite French movies: Le Vieux Fusil & La belle et la bête (version Cocteau)
Favorite international movies: Once Upon a Time in the West, Bodyguard, The Devil’s Advocate & Harlequin.
Favorite show: Lord of Dance (Irish dance show-directed by Michael Flatley)
Favorite writer: Victor Hugo
Favorite symbol: Yin and Yang
Favorite gadgets: Bugs Bunny puppets & funny lamps (like oil lamps, disco balls etc)
Favorite Place: The studio
Favorite Interior: Jukebox
Favorite leisure: Lake fishing
Favorite animal: Owl
Favorite nature sceneries: Winter mornings, mountains & watching the night sky
Favorite time of the year: Christmas time, especially in the city
Favorite food: Blanquette de Veau (typical French)
Favorite drink: The French wine “Moulin a Vent”
Favorite clothes/designers: The look of Keanu Reeves in the movie Matrix & Darth Vader outfit
Favorite color: Black

I was born on October 3rd 1952 in a small village of Vald’Oise in France.
My father was a policeman and my mother took care of me and my 3 year older brother at home.

When I was 4 years old I wanted to involve myself in music. At the age of 5 I started playing the piano by trying to imitate all the melodies and tunes from the radio. I got an accordion with piano keys for my birthday. I remember trying to read the only book I had about music back then, an old church book with Gregorian music.

When I turned 7, I became friends with the local priest of my village, so I had the privilege to practice on the old harmonium at the church- and in return I played during mass every Sunday.

At this time my musical knowledge was limited, I transformed popular songs into classical church style music, It was great to give my first live concert and having an audience, all the young people who heard about me , showed up in more and more numbers to attend the mass on Sundays.

My parents managed to save up enough money to buy me my first piano, and after that day all my spare time went into playing it. At the same time I was completely into sound effects, When I could afford it, I bought my first tape recorder, and I was able to experiment mixing all kinds of sounds-like birds sounds, strange drum rhythms and even using some sounds of the old church harmonium (because I had kept the keys!) I had hidden a speaker in the bushes in front of our house, and when people were approaching, I was putting up the volume to scare all our neighbors! I later entered the Paris Conservatory, taking classes from Miss Brousse, who also taught Michel Polnareff.

When I was 14, I assembled a small band together with a drummer and a guitarist –who could only play 3 chords, so we had to do with that!

But it was not my style, so I decided to quit, At this time I was also really into esoterism, so I decided to enter a parapsychology school were I studied for 3 years. I was also playing piano in a pub, and one night I meet Chris Annocquie, a folk singer and guitarist. Together we formed a band called “Fanchris”, We performed a show entitled “The Time Machine” Playing electrical music such as Graeme Allright, King Crimson, Beethoven, Irish songs but also our own music. Chris played both electric and acoustic guitars, and I played ELKA International 2000 orgue and ELKA Rhapsody keyboard. We were also using Korg Minipops rhythm box and a REVOX A77 to create some great sounds. This time was one of the best musical periods of my life.

My parents still remember our screams into big metal boxes, while we were searching after new sounds and voice effects. I got my piano degree at the Paris conservatory, but even though I liked classical music,

I did not like the ambiance going with it, Those people were no fun and way to strict, so I was often dismissed from the lessons, because instead of classical tracks I was playing “Paint it Black” from Stones.

In 1978 a new music shop opened in Paris. I applied and got a job as a salesman and demonstrator. The shop was called “Phonorgan” the first shop in Paris selling synthesizers. The shop owner was Joel Fajerman who later became a famous music composer, and the boss was Dominique Alas, importer of KORG brand. At this point in time synthesizers were considered cold machines and not able to generate emotions – those machines were the dinosaurs of electronic music.

I was still in the band Fanchris in 1978. After closing hours we rehearsed at the shop by using all of the equipment. The boss noticed I was not as good in selling the equipment as playing it.

A Saturday morning after he heard me making the complete audience in the shop laugh by playing my own funny “Tex Avery” style adaptation of “le lac des cygnes” he came to me and said: ”I want to see you in my office Monday morning! This particular Monday was about to change my life completely! I had no doubt he was going to fire me, but instead he told me “Francis I have a deal for you: For 3 months I will put you in a room with all the synthesizers and equipment you need, and you will compose an album, We will go on tour to all the cities where we have shops,”-That is how I composed the album Bionic Orchestra.

I had to quit the FanChris band. I was doing show demonstrations and thanks to the good reputation of the KORG brand I met a lot of artist who were interested in buying the instruments, such as Christophe, Vangelis, the singer from Tai Phong (Jean-Jacques Goldman) and Michel Geiss, Michel and I became friends immediately. We discovered we had the same accordion teacher. Yes, I did a year of accordion (it was my father’s idea!) Michel Geiss told me about his work with Jean Michel Jarre.

When Jean Michel Jarre was preparing the Concorde show, and Michel Geiss told him about me, playing with all the synthesizers around me. Jean Michel Jarre like the setup idea and called me.

I lended him my complete setup for the Concorde show. That was our first collaboration.

I signed a contract with CBS in 1980 to record some background music for radio commercials and TV programs. That resulted in the albums: Synthesizer I, Synthesizer II, Gym Music,FR2, (recorded together with Féderic Rousseau, keyboard of Vangelis). Duty Free, Electric Feeling and Keyboard Songs, but also Passing Shot for Amplitude, Digital Faith and Scenario for SBK.I wont deny those albums ,but they were made for a purpose ,not really artistically work.

In 1990 there was an international music contest in Tokyo ; the president of the jury was Tomita. Without any conviction I decided to send my song “Honey Tears” and I won the contest!

Then Roland contacted me to do some demonstrations and I toured all over France and Europe . I continued working for Roland for several years and also for Jean Michel Jarre doing Concert in Houston, Docklands, Lyon, Paris la Defense etc. but I had to choose so I stopped my collaboration with Roland.

From 1995 till 1996 I gave a few master classes for Ensoniq, but now I work full time for Jean Michel Jarre.

Francis Rimbert