Francesco Banchini & Baqshish

Francesco Banchini is a talented musician, even if his main instrument is the clarinet . He plays the guitar, piano, percussions and different wind instruments from the flute to different traditional wind instruments of the Middle- East and eastern Europe.
He started playing the clarinet with the Band of Pozzuoli, his home town,at the age of six. At the age of fourteen he starts attending the Conservatory of S. Pietro a Majella of Naples, to graduate six years after with a lot of sacrifices and hard work with the highest grade.
From 1989 to 1995 he has an intense live activity and starts composing his own music while participating in classical music contests, as a soloist and with a clarinet trio called “Dicearchia�.
Francesco has been playing and composing many different musical styles and this shows his incredible curiosity in experimenting, studying historical periods and traditional world music.
In 1999, he starts collaborating with the musical group called “Ataraxia�, playing various instruments in their live concerts.
In the same year Francesco and other friends create a musical group called “Mescla� that tours in all of Europe doing street concerts and collaborating with circuses, dancers, fire eaters creating a show which brought the spectator to laugh, be surprised and smile because of the energy and unity the group expressed. The music was fundamentally a re-arrangement of traditional music of the south of Italy, North African music, and with Rom musicians music from the East of Europe.
The Medieval period has always been a fascinating historical period for Francesco and studies the melodies, the instruments and the sacred texts of this period . This alchemy makes him compose medieval music and in 1999 and in 2000, Francesco is the artist director of the Medieval Festival in Campania, held in Casaluce a small town in the hinterland of Naples.
In 2000 the first soloist disc is published “Bellum Gnosticorum� for the record label Prikosnovenie, France.
In 2001 for the same label, a second cd is published “Ialdabaoth�.
In 2002 the third cd “Phlegraei� is published. There are various other collaborations: with the Japanese group Jack Or Jive in the cd “Soleil�; and in the cd entitled “Love Sessions� which includes the following groups : LYS(France), Louisa John-Krol(Australia), D. Nymphe(Greece), Marlene/Voilaoz(France), Liz Van Dort / Faraway (Australia) all these projects have been published by the French record label Prikosnovenie; except the collaboration with the group Morpheus (Spain); and with the Napoletan violinist Lino Cannavacciuolo(Italy).
In 2003, Francesco has written the soundtrack for an independent American film called “ Honey� of Evan Cagle. He has also written the music for the group “ T. S. B. B.�(U.S.A). In 2003 “Qumran�, the fourth album of Francesco, has been published, and the DVD audio called “Temporis Recurrens� has been published.
In 2004 the following cds has been published “Amore & Tradimento� a different kind of cd which mixes sound of gipsy music to Greek melodies; “Croisades� a cd of medieval music that has beeen published in June, Love Sessions 2 will be published in December.
In 2005 “Ciganko� has been published in April for Alula Records; live collaboration with Marcello Colasurdo from (Real World) traditional music of the south of Italy.
In 2006 wrote a music for “Circo de la sombra�, record for new album of Massimo Ferrante �Ricuordi� (Felmay) and play in some live concerts. Record in a new cd of Enrico del Gaudio “Biancofiore� (Il Manifesto)
In 2007 will be release a cd called “Baqshish� for Italian label Felmay, and a collaboration called Khvarena with a French band Rajna will be release for Projekt records .