Welcome to my About Page
A quick overview for the dedicated booker and programmer
RAPHAEL DE COCK
Multi-instrumentalist & singer
​
Overview Current Bands & Projects
website : raphaeldecock.be
contact : rdecock@hotmail.com
tel : +32477993946
​
Note: underlined are links
​
Short Bio
​
-
based in Antwerp, Belgium
-
multi-instrumentalist and singer inspired by traditional singing styles & techniques
-
involved in various Belgian as well as international music projects
-
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, Tuva, igil & byzaanchy); mouth harps/jew’s harps; ravvast hand pans; kalimba; small percussion; etc.
"Own" projects
Osuna www.osuna-orovivo.be - bookman.be/osuna/ (Benelux booking)
​
Osuna interweaves Anatolian strings with those from South Siberia and strings from bygone eras. A symbiosis of Anatolian stringed instruments (saz, tanbur), Siberian harps (Khakas chatkhan) and medieval European string instruments and voices produces a musically surprising tapestry of sounds. In their latest album they follow Marco Polo along the Silk Road in collaboration with a Sand Artist that shows the journey visually with live projected Sandscapes.
​
Album: https://open.spotify.com/album/Osuna
Videos: https://vimeo.com/573471983 ; https://vimeo.com/830667857
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=FfGInmuPczU
Halewyn halewyn-orovivo.be
​
Grand spectacle around the medieval Ballad of Sir Halewyn . An old story found in many cultures worldwide about a Princess that defends herself from a brute masculin nature force and returns home as a heroine. Includes acrobatics, singing, mixed music genres (Folk, World, electronics, musical theatre and live projected sand drawing. Comes in a festival or concert hall version. Perfect for school, youth, family audiences.
Video: https://youtu.be/Zaf9FrmTtdY
​
Colette Dedyn makes drawings with sand on an illuminated glass plate.
Raphaël De Cock plays various musical instruments.
With music and sand, the duo MuZand tells stories.
The figures are projected on a large screen or white wall.
The stories set to music are suitable for all ages.
Muzand works surprisingly through the interplay of music and images.
Performances can be adapted to the programmers wishes.
Videos: https://youtu.be/1d3hMxj0F2Y ; https://youtu.be/NQvPVKieMPg ; https://youtu.be/mxHv9snm8uc
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.
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 Belgian 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. Performances can be given as a quartet or sextet.
Album: spotify.com/album/Zwerver ; toasaves.bandcamp.com/
Videos: https://youtu.be/77g2Q1Np7p0 ; https://youtu.be/clWBtWHN3PE
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 2024
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
The theatre company Laika and the music ensemble Zefiro Torna have created their very first show together. BALSAM is 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 opportunities. Let's connect !
+32 477 99 39 46