Band

New Age (1988 - 1991)

BABEL 17 was founded late 1988 by Jean Franceschi, Vincent Porte and Vincent Perret. The band's music is influenced by the coldwave, post punk, 80's pre-goth scene, industrial... and also by new-wave, le psychedelic rock, dub, EBM, 80's minimal techno...

The band is quickly signed on Lively Art (new wave/coldwave/electro subdivision of New Rose, le biggest french indie label at the time), publish two albums, "Celeano Fragments" (1990), "Shades" (1991), and appears on several compilations (L'Appel de la Muse vol.2, Dyadique, Passage du Trou Marin, Visa, Prémonition...).

In Distress (1992 - 1993)

In 1992, BABEL 17 hire a new member, Franck Meissonnier (guitar, bass). The band records a third album, "Shamanic Tales", but Lively Art goes to bankruptcy before publishing it. The group officially disbanded in march 1993 and three of the four members continued as CYBERCRAFT, a Goa Trance act, until 1995. Jean Jean then founded a solo act, ETHERIEL.

So Hard To Live (2003 - 2009)

In 2003, the band reforms several times before splitting up again in 2006. Since then, Jean Franceschi is the only permanent member, he writes a new album, "The Ice Wall", helped by Franck Meissonnier who meanwhile became producer. The album is published in 2009 on Infrastition, label who previously re-issued "Celeano Fragments" and "Shades".

Don't Play With Me (2010 - 2013)

In 2010, Vincent K., DJ and NO TEARS's former bassist joins the band. The new line-up works on new songs, some covers and the fourth BABEL 17's studio album, "Leviathan", released in april 2013 on Infrastition.

Always On The Run (2014 - 2019)

Following the release of "Leviathan", BABEL 17 did a few scattered gigs in Paris & France, as well as composing and recording new songs. A vinyl edition of "Celeano Fragments" is released in 2014. A new album, "Process", is released by Infrastition in june 2017.

After the release of the album, BABEL 17 participate in a few concerts and festivals, including the "Sons à Margem" festival in Arosa (Portugal) in 2017 and the "North Shadows" festival in 2019.

A Journey Inside (2020 - 2021)

Like the other bands, BABEL 17 suffered of the Covid 19 years (2020-2021), Jean Jean then mostly worked on remixes and the reactivation of CYBERCRAFT while Vincent co-founded the band NEW DRAMA.

On The Run Again (2022 - )

While working on their respective projects, Jean-Jean et Vincent however kept composing new songs for BABEL 17 and play them onstage since the resumption of the concerts.