Frank Rabeyrolles is a discreet and unclassifiable figure on the French music scene, who first gained attention in 2004 with Life Behind the Window, the debut album from his project Double U. His dreamy, hybrid music, oscillating between pop, electronic, and songwriting, astonishes and seduces. He has released a solid succession of albums first under Double U and then Franklin. His creative approach over the years, and now decades, could be seen as a yearning for artistic ritual driven by passion, but also as an existential necessity. At the end of 2011, Frank Rabeyrolles decided to release #8, his first album under his real name. Between Experimental Pop, Lo-Fi Folk, and Ambient, Frank has never wanted or needed to choose. The follow-up comes in 2021 with A Ghost by the Sea, a record that asserts itself as ambient, also endowed with a melodic and contemplative obsession that has been a trademark since his debut. In 2022 and 2023, he composed Boat Songs and Minor Blue, bittersweet, chiaroscuro ballads built around clear and concise guitars, accompanied by Romain Delorme and Sébastien Pasquet in a Guitar/Bass/Drums Trio. In early 2024, Frank Rabeyrolles returned to solitary work in the home studio, cultivating a gentle schizophrenia between tenderness, sonic roundness, echoes, spleen, and hope. The album In Conversations was released in February 2025 on Araki Records. After two albums recorded in a trio/quartet format, this new album marks a return to a certain pop bricolage and organic work created around layers of guitars. His new stunning album, Slow, was released in February on the French label Too Good To Be True.

What He Says: “I chose this title because it perfectly symbolizes my desire to combine  pop/songwriting DNA with my aspiration for instrumental and slightly more experimental music. On this new album, there are three tracks that attempt to break away from classic pop conventions: Birds Aren’t Changing, Fly Away and Slow Cricket. I wanted them to be like a parenthesis without abandoning my desire to also create very melodic pieces, structured like “classic” songs.“

“This song could be interpreted as an attempt to write a “real classic indie rock song“, but ultimately I find that the way the guitar is placed gives it a freer and more original feel at times. It’s one of my most listened-to songs; I’ve never really understood why. I chose it because something about this track eludes me a little, and that’s one of the mysteries of music that defies all rationality. In the end, I like the ambivalence of this song, between hope and melancholy; it’s a tension between these two feelings that often appears in my lyrics.“

His Mixtape:

Bill Evans – The Peacocks 

This piece can be found on You Must Believe in Spring. It’s from the mid-70s. The album title is also very beautiful. This track possesses a rare restraint, with a beautiful sensitivity that always oscillates between melancholy and light. Bill Evans allows silence to permeate his music, and this breath is captivating. Jazz, which is sometimes a demonstrative music, becomes evidently minimal and stripped bare. 

 Robert Wyatt – Free Will and Testament

Taken from the 1997 album Shleep, Wyatt has experienced it all: success with the exuberant jazz/pop/prog of Soft Machine, then a period of hardship following his terrible accident, followed by the home studio and the desire to create everything independently during his Rough Trade records  period. For me he’s one of  the pioneers of bedroom pop, using his synthesizers and modest means to push the boundaries of this utopian vision of making pop and jazz sound like a new, uncompromising experience.  Wyatt’s music moves me, and I always come back to it, it helps me to keep creating and working on my music. I also love his “indie” position in the Industry. 

Low – Whitetail

Taken from the album Things We Lost in the Fire, everything here unfolds at a slow pace that draws the listener into layers of sound, almost ambient textures. Low’s music is at its peak, imbued with a spirituality bordering on religiosity that makes it so unique and beautiful. I missed Low when listening to their albums from the 2010s, but then, gradually working my way back to the 90s, I discovered a unique, intense, and dark sound and approach. Low is a true classic for me, like Flaubert or Hemingway.

The Innocence Mission – A Different Day (Alternative Version)

A sublime acoustic version of “A Different Day” that reminds us a little of the folk music of Sibylle Baier or Vashti Bunyan. A strange mix of “old bossa nova” and Indie “Pastoral” Pop Always amazed by the contrast between the sound of the clean electric guitars and the very muted and gentle folk guitar.

John Coltrane – Central Park West 

The  track is originally a John Lewis piece. I first discovered it on the Bill Evans and Jim Hall album, and later stumbled upon the magnetic version by John Coltrane and his quartet. Here again, a jazz ballad reminiscent of the masterpiece Naima—not a single note is superfluous. Coltrane can play smooth and gentle, or experiment and become a noisy and experimental monster.The perfect morning track to listen in the car with family.

Will Oldham – I See A Darkness (2018 Version)

This version is less dark and more serene than the original. It brings out the beauty of his songwriting; I discovered Will Oldham’s music in the 90s and it has never left me. It also embodies that DIY and raw side of a tormented folk music with a sometimes punk and desperate spirit. Now Will Oldham sounds more traditional but his songwriting is still passionate and sincere.

Peel Dream Magazine – Seek And Destroy 

Seek and destroy and not Search and destroy (the Stooges song). A more contemporary band that I’ve been following for a while, moving from shoegaze sound towards an elegant indie Pop with occasional incursions  into cyclical music influenced by Philip Glass. It’s a blend of shoegaze, Stereolab-esque pop, and repetitive music. A brilliant alchemy with highly sophisticated and subtle melodies. Addictive!

 

Dean Wareham – New World Julie 

Here again, a brilliant songwriter. The bible for all fans of crystalline guitars and classy Jangle Pop. The track is taken from the latest album and is yet another tribute to the Velvet Underground devotion,  but with Dean Wareham’s unique sensibility and that still somewhat eternally youthful voice…Not so far from Galaxie 500…

Sun Kill Moon – Carry Me Ohio

A nice hit from Mark Kozelec, a Post Red House Painters song. I discovered Red House painters quite late at the end of the 90’s and I was more into Pavement, Sebadoh sound  at this moment. A beautiful pop song built on a few chords with a nice chorus guitar picking but with Mark’s magic touch and soulful voice. The song is repetitive but never boring, subtle events and evolutions keep you into the song. This is the kind of track that should be played on mainstream radios like an old REM song.

Slow is out now Too Good To Be True. Look HERE for more information on Frank Rabeyrolles.