Functional Stereo Music

Between 1972 and 1983 piano player Rob Franken was the main man & instigator during the so-called FuMu sessions. Functional Music that was meant to sound like background music in shopping malls, hotels, elevators, department stores and airports. The music for this ongoing project was specially recorded for this purpose in some of the best sound studios in the Netherlands. Rob Franken arranged the sessions, played Fender piano and synthesizers and drew from his immense network of musicians to collaborate with. The repertoire consisted mostly of jazz standards, pop songs, pieces by Frankens's musical heroes and several of his own compositions. In truth, they were often nothing less than inspirational short jam sessions, in which the best Dutch jazz musicians of the seventies contributed. The FuMu recordings of Rob Franken were fortunately saved by the producer at the time. In 2018, the independent label 678 Records started a series of six albums, presenting an exclusive choice from this enormous library of 'functional stereo music'.