Welcome to my About Page
Quick overview of new and current music projects
RAPHAEL DE COCK
Multi-instrumentalist & singer
Current Bands & Projects
website : raphaeldecock.be
contact : rdecock@hotmail.com
tel : +32477993946
Note: underlined are links
Short Bio
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based in Antwerp, Belgium
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multi-instrumentalist and singer inspired by traditional singing styles & techniques
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involved in various Belgian as well as international music projects
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regularly gives workshops and courses; teacher at Muziekpublique.be World Music & Dance Academy
Raphael discovered the Irish bagpipes, the uilleann pipes, in 1989. In those days he also discovered Tuvan throat singing and overtone singing. This was the start of a lifetime adventure and search for musical instruments and vocal timbres and techniques. Raphaël is active in many different kinds of local and international musical projects. Discover these in the next pages…..
Musical Expertise
Vocal style expertises: Belgian trad & folk (Flemish + Walloon); Irish sean-nós; Scandinavian (Norwegian kveding, lokk/kulning); Medieval and World polyphony (Sardinian, Corsican, Albanian/Epirus, Balkan); Galician-Portugese; Sephardic songs; Sámi yoik; Tuvan and other overtone throatsinging styles (kattajaq, khöömeï, Xhosa umngqokolo, ..), etc.
Musical instruments: shortlist - bagpipes (uilleann pipes, säckpipa, Belgo-french type, Gaita Galega, Bulgaro-Thracian Gaida); flutes and whistles (tin+low whistles, kaval, duduk, clarinettes, alboka, overtone flutes, ...); zithers (chatkhan, citera, épinette, guqin); fiddles (hardanger fiddle, Tuvan igil & byzaanchy); mouth harps/jew’s harps; ravvast hand pans; kalimba; small percussion; etc.
"Own" projects
Osuna www.osuna-orovivo.be
Osuna interweaves Anatolian strings with those from South Siberia and strings from bygone eras. A symbiosis of Anatolian stringed instruments (Emre Gültekin - saz, tanbur), Siberian harps (Raphaël De Cock - Khakas chatkhan) and medieval European bowed instruments (Thomas Baeté) and voices produces a musically surprising tapestry of sounds. In their latest album they follow Marco Polo along the Silk Road in collaboration with Sand Artist Colette Dedyn - she provides the artwork visually accompagnying the musical journey with projected Sandscapes.
Album: https://open.spotify.com/album/Osuna
Videos: https://vimeo.com/573471983 ; https://vimeo.com/830667857
Enara Navaira linktr.ee/enara.navaira
Bold roots, new sounds. Four Antwerp-based musicians, each rooted in a unique musical tradition, join forces in an innovative and daring collaboration, where the swallow brushes the horizon and sound surrenders to freedom ...
Robbe Broeckx – percussion, voice
Wolf De Backer – double bass, voice
Oscar Beerten – hardanger fiddle, brácsa fiddle, violin, voice
Raphaël De Cock – citerá, traditional wind instruments, mouth harps, voice
+32 474 19 37 17
OROVIVO orovivo.website
Embark on a meditative dream journey with Orovivo, where world music, ritual, and improvisation intertwine into a deeply transformative experience. In the intimate setting of a Mongolian yurt, Raphaël De Cock weaves hypnotic layers of strings, flutes, and overtone singing into a soundscape that transcends borders and time. Together with Evie De Geyter (Sister Albatros), he creates “Living Gold” or Orovivo — concerts that heal, connect, and linger in the heart. The evening begins with a cleansing smudge and a guided drum journey by Sister Albatros, opening a sacred space for inner travel. More than a concert, Orovivo is an invitation to awaken, feel, and journey beyond the everyday.
Video 3
EDRA www.edra-poeticfolk
Poetic Folk music. Edwin & Raphaël blend their string and wind instruments, their percussion and their voices to make you feel all the mellowness of their improvised "poetic folk" music.
EDRA is ideal for the smaller concert halls, living room concerts, intimate festivals or even classroom or school concerts ....
Videos: https://youtu.be/p7I1QL8JlwM ; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0gvxcWrsjk
Other Projects – where Raphaël is involved as singer-musician
Griff trio www.griff.be - www.redorange.org.uk
Three outstanding musicians between tradition and avant-garde.
An alchemy of voices and instruments, unique sounds, touching harmonies, intriguing rhythms.
A delightful journey in time and space, a charm of the present moment.
Pipes but no kilts: bagpipe music to a new level. Between tradition and avant-garde. 100% Belgium.
Liesbet Marivoet, Rémi Decker, Raphäel De Cock
Latest album: http://www.variole.be/griff_ephemera.html ; open.spotify.com/griff trio ephemera
Videos: https://youtu.be/ygPuJIULVZQ ; https://youtu.be/L6tdNWmqdM0
Toasaves muziekpublique.be/artists/toasaves/
A music collective with a fascination for old Flemish folk songs and their relationship to Early Music and Eastern music. Toasaves is phonetic and means "home ports" in the Antwerp tongue. The company brings together nine musicians from Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Turkey and Cyprus, each with a broad artistic background and expertise. On its first album "Zwerver", Toasaves starts from the compositions and the Groot Liedboek (Great Songbook) of Wannes van de Velde (1937-2008), the singer-artist who breathed new life into the oldest surviving ballads and litanies in his home city of Antwerp. Quartet Toasaves are Miriam Encinas Lafitte, Tristan Driessens, Harald Bauweraerts and Raphaël De Cock.
Album: spotify.com/album/Zwerver ; toasaves.bandcamp.com/
Videos: https://youtu.be/77g2Q1Np7p0 ; https://youtu.be/clWBtWHN3PE
Triolog triolog.website
Triolog is a musical project by three musicians that is largely based on improvisation, with influences from ambient, jazz, folk and post-classical music. The group consists of Johan Van den Abeele (saxophone & wind controller), Raphael De Cock (multi-instrumentalist & vocals, including yoiks, throat singing), and was originally founded by Joost Carpentier (computer & keyboards). Unfortunately, the project is currently on hold due to the passing of Joost Carpentier. A (posthumous) album is ready to be released.
Listen to some pre-master tracks here.
Video Triolog first ever recording @ The Leest in Izegem 18 December 2021 - FULL TRACK
MyNoise https://mynoise.net/
MyNoise is definitely one of the best tools online for generating (combinations of) background sounds and musical scapes to boost your productivity or to help you relax, or even to sleep.
Dr. Ir. Stéphane Pigeon - the creator of myNoise - asked me to collaborate in some sound generators adding voices, throatsinging, and other vocal techniques.... the outcome is really beautiful - just click and listen:
Listen to Calling our Ancestors
Listen to Silk and Hopes
Hiraeth hiraeth.be
During violinist Wouter Vandenabeele's 2022 quest for Melancholy, looking for Southern European traditions with melodies hovering between painful longing for beauty and hope for unattainable joy, he met talented musicians whom he invited to play concerts with here and elsewhere. .
Album: due in 2026
Videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q69HQZ1ZjiM ; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1FNLvBkKNw
Balsam – Zefiro Torna & Theater Laika
The compositions from the program Balsam bear names such as Alchemilla/Lady’s mantle, les Roses de Saadi or Artemisia absinthium. They resound in the company of traditional songs from Portugal or Greece, Old Norse Edda songs about the Yggdrasil or tree of life, spiritual songs from Hildegard von Bingen and close-knit 15th-century music of Guillaume Dufay or the baroque splendour of Heinrich Schütz. They refer to texts of Virgil and Horace, or of the Song of Songs or verses by Charles Baudelaire or Emile Verhaeren.
Concert version: sextet https://zefirotorna.be/en/productions
Album: https://open.spotify.com/album/Zefiro Torna BALSAM
Video: https://youtu.be/z3QQsgEIJ1s?si=76wR94rZLkBztsMk
Music theatre version: https://www.laika.be/EN/balsam
Theatre company Laika and music ensemble Zefiro Torna created their very first show together: BALSAM, a sensory and musical performance. An alchemistic concert. A seductive laboratory in which live music mingles with intoxicating aromas and tastes and with visual and physical experiences.
Get a taste here: https://vimeopro.com/theaterlaika/publiek/video/391444936
Contact
If you wish more information, contact me.
I am always looking for new and exciting collaborations. Let's connect!
+32 477 99 39 46