Red Bull Music Academy has today announced details of a four-stop mini UK tour this February, paving the way to this year’s Academy edition in Paris this November.
For those of you who don’t know, RBMA is pop-up music school of sorts that travels that world and will see 60 hand-pick producers move to Paris for a month of workshops, inspiring talks and production masterclasses.
Before that, RBMA will stop off in London, Liverpool, Leeds and Bristol before this year’s academy in Paris with workshops and lectures from DJ Deep, Ivanne Smagghe, Francois K and Gilb’r.
To apply for the Red Bull Music Academy Paris simply download the application form at apply.redbullmusicacademy.com and follow the instructions.
Road to Paris lectures are open to the public and can be applied for here: redbull.co.uk/roadtoparis.
Launching proceedings in Leeds on February 3rd, self confessed vinyl junkie, DJ Deep hosts the first lecture session of the series. A revered tastemaker on the Paris scene for pretty much the last two decades, DJ Deep cut his teeth as a resident DJ for Laurent Garnier at La Luna and Paris’ world famous Rex Club where he played alongside the likes of legends Lil’ Louis, Derrick May, DJ Pierre, Ron Trent and Chez Damier. He was then spotted by long time hero Derrick May who invited him to Detroit where he met a lot of his heroes of the time Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson, Carl Craig, Kenny Larkin and Stacey Pullen. 2015 sees the first releases of music from DJ Deep for nearly 15 years with and EP on Ron Morelli’s L.I.E.S and production with fast rising Roman Poncet on Tresor with 2 EPs to be released in the first half of the year and a full LP due on Desire records.
Liverpool follows on February 4th, with a lecture from renowned French daddy of disco, Francois K. Occupying the highest tiers of acclaim, Francois K joins Larry Levan and Frankie Knuckles among the forefathers of house, inextricably linked with legendary meccas of music Paradise Garage, Studio 54 and The Loft whilst evolving into the DJ/producer powerhouse he is today.
Bristol welcomes arbiter of Parisian cool Ivan Smagghe on February 5th, dishing out his electro expertise and trade secrets of the techno coterie. Occupying the upper echelons of French hype, Smagghe toes the line as one of the most sought after DJs to emerge from the capital. A key figure in the electroclash scene, his early Death Disco compilation solidified his persona as a seminal one-to-watch. Having garnered praise from the likes of James Murphy, Trevor Jackson, Optimo and sometime-partner-in-crime Andrew Weatherall, he can also be found treasure-hunting for musical diamonds-in-the-rough in his A&R role for established French label Kill The DJ, or hashing together compilations for Bugged Out and Fabric.
Bringing the series to a fitting end, the last session takes place at Red Bull HQ in London on February 6th, featuring Parisian royalty, Gilb’R, the label boss of Versatile Records, half of Chateau Flight with I:Cube, producer of The Big Crunch Theory with Lisa Li Lund, member of Aladdin with Nicolas Ker and rising solo producer and encyclopeadic DJ. From his days as a musical programmer and DJ for the legendary Parisian station Radio Nova to his productions, remixes and partnership with I:Cube as Chateau Flight and maybe most important with Versatile Records, the history of modern French electronic and dance music would look very different without Gilbert Cohen alias Gilb’R and his body of work.
