1-motivic sheaves and the Albanese functor

We introduce n-generated sheaves and n-motivic sheaves, describing completely for n = 0, 1 and proposing a conjecture for n > 1. We then obtain functors L\pi_0 and LAlb on DM_{eff}(k) deriving \pi_0 and Alb. The functor LAlb extends the one constructed (by the second author jointly with B.Kahn) to non-necessarily geometric motives. These functors are then used to define higher N\'eron-Severi groups and higher Albanese sheaves. The latter may be considered as an algebraic avatar of Deligne (co)homology.