Lemon Jelly is a downtempo electronica band, widely-known for its albums Lemonjelly.ky (2000), Lost Horizons (2002), and '64-'95 (2005). Their genre can also be described as ambient, chill out, or lounge. The duo was formed in 1998 by Fred Deakin and Nick Franglen, who both had their own unique backgrounds.
Fred Deakin had worked as a DJ in Edinburgh, organizing club nights. While finishing an MA in English Literature, he also started to make his own flyers and visuals for the events. This interest in graphic design led Deakin to London, where he studied and taught Communication Design, and became one of the three founders of Airside design studio. The same company later created the distinctive Lemon Jelly visual "brand". All the bright colored promotional artwork, including posters, videos, and albums, is the work of Deakin's Airside studios.
The second member of the Lemon Jelly band, Nick Franglen, had been a classically trained musician, producer, and a multi-instrumentalist. He had played keyboard and programmed drums on studio recordings for Bjork, Primal Scream, Hole, Pulp, and Blur. Franglen had also created music for film and television. Before gaining greater musical recognition, he used to work as a landscape gardener.
Prior to the foundation of the Lemon Jelly band, Fred Deaking and Nick Franglen already knew each other briefly. Before Deakin went to Edinburgh, they had shared a similar group of friends in London. After Deakin moved back from Edinburgh, they became reacquainted. The common interest in rock music was one of the factors that united them, and in 1998 they began recording under the name Lemon Jelly.
While the first two albums Lemonjelly.ky and Lost Horizons seem more consistent in their style with their laid back groove and soft mood, the character of their third record changes throughout the tracks, featuring more impulsive beats, samples, and electric guitars.
Presently the Lemon Jelly band is on hiatus. In 2008, Deakin announced on Lemon Jelly's official forum that the duo would take a break and both artists would pursue separate careers. Fred Deakin has resumed his DJ career and Nick Franglen has continued his diverse musical endeavors, one of them being an improvised guitar driven electronica duo called Blacksand.
However, the two musicians have not excluded the opportunity to collaborate again in the future. Their official forum displays a message:"Not Dead, But Sleeping."
Besides their musical duo, Franglen and Deakin also co-operated in 2007, when Franglen composed the music for Inventions Of The Abstract, which is an hour-long movie of abstract dynamic graphics.
NOTE: Joonas Kreen is a music enthusiast, who operates his own music site at http://joonaskreenmusic.info/
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