©
Noé Pestiaux
Guillaume Vanespen
- Instruments : Drums and percussion, Drums
- Date of birth : 21/06/1980 - Charleroi
Biography of Guillaume Vanespen
Guillaume Vanespen, musician, improviser, composer, drummer, bowed gong player, drum teacher, pedagogue and "Dance and Musicality" facilitator.
Born 21st June 1980 in Charleroi, Guillaume Vanespen’s musical culture begins with MTV at the age of five, and the discovery of modern music such as rap, funk, reggae and rock, ...
At the age of 12, he takes up the drums on his own, playing the same music, and soon afterwards he starts improvising on the instrument, playing music based on emotions and feelings, sometimes as if in direct contact with his experience of life...
At the age of 14, a gift changes his life: a first jazz album... "Max & Dizzy Paris 1989" ... which inspires him to start building up his musical culture. He explores the multimedia library, discovering many jazzmen, free jazz musicians... as well as European "Free music".
Upon listening to drummers such as Han Bennink and Tony Oxley, he finds a family, having been playing the same style in his bedroom for some time already.
Still in his teens, he plays with Mélanie De Biasio, Manu Roland , Axel Gilain, Grégoire Tirtiaux, ...
Between 1998 and 2012, he becomes a form of spiritual pupil of Professor Milford Graves, whom he meets in 2000 (Paris) and 2002 (Willisau).
At the age of 19, he spends two and half months studying at the Jazz Studio in Antwerp, realising then that he’ll pursue his own training in the same way he started it: by listening, by being aware of all the different systems of play, by being attentive to other musicians’ timbres and tonalities, as well as to all the nuances of his own instrument.
In 2000 and 2001, he travels to Essaouira in Morocco to meet Mâalem Mahmoud Gania, "King of the Gnawas", to learn from this Arab, Berber and Black African musical culture.
In 2002, he is recorded for a c.d album (500 copies printed), a duo concert with Grégoire Tirtiaux.
Since 2001, where he lives in Brussels, he has had the opportunity to play with a number of musicians:
With jazzmen such as Peter Jacquemyn, Eddy Loozen, Chris Joris, Bart Maris, Antoine Prawerman, Cécile Broché, Daniel Stockart, Jan Pillaert, Daysuke Takaoka, Augusto Pirodda, Giotis Damianidis, Niels Van Heertum, Fabrice Eulry, Eve Risser, Erwin Vann, ...
With "world musicians" such as Mady Kouyate, Bayo Kankan, Houssem Ben El Kadhi, Hung Shao Huan, ...
With contemporary musicians such as Andres Navajo, Didier Casamitjana, Marcello Giannandrea, Franco Panizon, Blanca Prieto, Ana Simon, Joseph Nowell, Suzan Peeters, Emmanuel Cremer, ...
And with locally based musicians of other genres such as Matthieu Ha, Laryssa Kim, ...
He has also worked on various projects combining dance and music with dancers Yvan "Krazy" Berthem, Horacio Macuacua, Ine Claes, Elodie Donaque, Mercedes Dassy, Carmen Larraz, ...
As well as a variety of live painting/music performances with painters Smael Laurent, Bernard Tirtiaux, Charley Case, Philippe Dardelet, David Bartholomé, ...
In 2010, he forms "Trio Bongo", a band with Peter Jacquemyn and Grégoire Tirtiaux.
In 2011, he is lucky enough to play with Tatsuya Nakatani, a Japanese percussionist using all kinds of alternative techniques, as well as bowed gong. Inspired by Tatsuya Nakatani, he soon begins playing his second official instrument, a 24" Chinese gong played with a cello bow. A rare instrument, played with an equally rare technique.
The gong, played with a bow, creates a variety of long notes, both high and low, which can become intertwined. Sometimes reminiscent of a sort of meditative music.
That same year, he founds the 'Gong Extensions' quartet with blowers who practise circular breathing: Grégoire Tirtiaux, Audrey Lauro and Mirko Bozzeto.
In 2013, they are twice invited to play with "Mâak's Spirit", a band featuring Pierre Bernard, Laurent Blondiau, Jeroen Van Herzeel, Guillaume Orti, Michel Massot, Gabor Gado and Claude Tchamitchian.
In 2017, the band is re-formed with Yann Lecollaire and Quentin Manfroy, who in 2020 is replaced by Sylvain Debaisieux. Quentin Manfroy has since moved to Spain and occasionally returns to play with the quartet.
Guillaume Vanespen, musician, improviser, composer, drummer, bowed gong player, drum teacher, pedagogue and "Dance and Musicality" facilitator.
Born 21st June 1980 in Charleroi, Guillaume Vanespen’s musical culture begins with MTV at the age of five, and the discovery of modern music such as rap, funk, reggae and rock, ...
At the age of 12, he takes up the drums on his own, playing the same music, and soon afterwards he starts improvising on the instrument, playing music based on emotions and feelings, sometimes as if in direct contact with his experience of life...
At the age of 14, a gift changes his life: a first jazz album... "Max & Dizzy Paris 1989" ... which inspires him to start building up his musical culture. He explores the multimedia library, discovering many jazzmen, free jazz musicians... as well as European "Free music".
Upon listening to drummers such as Han Bennink and Tony Oxley, he finds a family, having been playing the same style in his bedroom for some time already.
Still in his teens, he plays with Mélanie De Biasio, Manu Roland , Axel Gilain, Grégoire Tirtiaux, ...
Between 1998 and 2012, he becomes a form of spiritual pupil of Professor Milford Graves, whom he meets in 2000 (Paris) and 2002 (Willisau).
At the age of 19, he spends two and half months studying at the Jazz Studio in Antwerp, realising then that he’ll pursue his own training in the same way he started it: by listening, by being aware of all the different systems of play, by being attentive to other musicians’ timbres and tonalities, as well as to all the nuances of his own instrument.
In 2000 and 2001, he travels to Essaouira in Morocco to meet Mâalem Mahmoud Gania, "King of the Gnawas", to learn from this Arab, Berber and Black African musical culture.
In 2002, he is recorded for a c.d album (500 copies printed), a duo concert with Grégoire Tirtiaux.
Since 2001, where he lives in Brussels, he has had the opportunity to play with a number of musicians:
With jazzmen such as Peter Jacquemyn, Eddy Loozen, Chris Joris, Bart Maris, Antoine Prawerman, Cécile Broché, Daniel Stockart, Jan Pillaert, Daysuke Takaoka, Augusto Pirodda, Giotis Damianidis, Niels Van Heertum, Fabrice Eulry, Eve Risser, Erwin Vann, ...
With "world musicians" such as Mady Kouyate, Bayo Kankan, Houssem Ben El Kadhi, Hung Shao Huan, ...
With contemporary musicians such as Andres Navajo, Didier Casamitjana, Marcello Giannandrea, Franco Panizon, Blanca Prieto, Ana Simon, Joseph Nowell, Suzan Peeters, Emmanuel Cremer, ...
And with locally based musicians of other genres such as Matthieu Ha, Laryssa Kim, ...
He has also worked on various projects combining dance and music with dancers Yvan "Krazy" Berthem, Horacio Macuacua, Ine Claes, Elodie Donaque, Mercedes Dassy, Carmen Larraz, ...
As well as a variety of live painting/music performances with painters Smael Laurent, Bernard Tirtiaux, Charley Case, Philippe Dardelet, David Bartholomé, ...
In 2010, he forms "Trio Bongo", a band with Peter Jacquemyn and Grégoire Tirtiaux.
In 2011, he is lucky enough to play with Tatsuya Nakatani, a Japanese percussionist using all kinds of alternative techniques, as well as bowed gong. Inspired by Tatsuya Nakatani, he soon begins playing his second official instrument, a 24" Chinese gong played with a cello bow. A rare instrument, played with an equally rare technique.
The gong, played with a bow, creates a variety of long notes, both high and low, which can become intertwined. Sometimes reminiscent of a sort of meditative music.
That same year, he founds the 'Gong Extensions' quartet with blowers who practise circular breathing: Grégoire Tirtiaux, Audrey Lauro and Mirko Bozzeto.
In 2013, they are twice invited to play with "Mâak's Spirit", a band featuring Pierre Bernard, Laurent Blondiau, Jeroen Van Herzeel, Guillaume Orti, Michel Massot, Gabor Gado and Claude Tchamitchian.
In 2017, the band is re-formed with Yann Lecollaire and Quentin Manfroy, who in 2020 is replaced by Sylvain Debaisieux. Quentin Manfroy has since moved to Spain and occasionally returns to play with the quartet.
(YouTube video: "Gong Extensions")
The group is planning the “Gong Extensions East Ensemble” for 2025, with guests Nathan Daems, Shao Huan Hung and Mostapha Taleb,as well as the production of the quartet's first album.And the "Gong Extensions Big Band" for 2026
In 2012, these 'waves' of sound inspire him to have a go at using his bow to play the string that holds the gong... And there, he discovers sounds that resemble those of dolphins (YouTube video: "Ocean Voices").
From then on, he starts to dream of a band playing music directly inspired by the Ocean. Inspired by Nature, as opposed to being inspired by human phenomena as is usually the case.
And ten years later, in July 2021, he meets Thanas Kas, playing whale sounds, with whom he founds the"Ocean Voices Duo". (YouTube video: "Ocean Voices Duo")
An album is expected in 2025.
In 2016, having long been inspired by Asia and the Orient, he forms the Sikhara Ensemble duo with Ruben Void.
Since 1997, he has also developed a whole language of alternative techniques, played on a bongo with or without drumsticks.
As a drummer, Guillaume Vanespen has developed a conscious and sensitive vision of the instrument, rooted in the expressive and personal dimension, blending the organic and the precise, attentive to timbre, tonality, nuance, rhythmic breathing as well as the melodic aspect of the drums.The techniques are always at the service of musicality. Accompanist and soloist from moment to moment.
All within a transcendent Past/Present/Future. Respectfully attempting to be both "a summary of previous episodes", while firmly anchored in the present.
Many encounters with great musicians have also inspired him: Mal Waldron, Barre Phillips, Charles Gayle, Mat Maneri, Tim Berne, ...
Guillaume Vanespen is moreover a drum teacher (Maison de la Création de Bockstael 2018-2023), creator and facilitator of "Dance and Musicality", a teaching programme designed for dancers exploring the relationship between dance and music.
In 2012, these 'waves' of sound inspire him to have a go at using his bow to play the string that holds the gong... And there, he discovers sounds that resemble those of dolphins (YouTube video: "Ocean Voices").
From then on, he starts to dream of a band playing music directly inspired by the Ocean. Inspired by Nature, as opposed to being inspired by human phenomena as is usually the case.
And ten years later, in July 2021, he meets Thanas Kas, playing whale sounds, with whom he founds the"Ocean Voices Duo". (YouTube video: "Ocean Voices Duo")
An album is expected in 2025.
In 2016, having long been inspired by Asia and the Orient, he forms the Sikhara Ensemble duo with Ruben Void.
Since 1997, he has also developed a whole language of alternative techniques, played on a bongo with or without drumsticks.
As a drummer, Guillaume Vanespen has developed a conscious and sensitive vision of the instrument, rooted in the expressive and personal dimension, blending the organic and the precise, attentive to timbre, tonality, nuance, rhythmic breathing as well as the melodic aspect of the drums.The techniques are always at the service of musicality. Accompanist and soloist from moment to moment.
All within a transcendent Past/Present/Future. Respectfully attempting to be both "a summary of previous episodes", while firmly anchored in the present.
Many encounters with great musicians have also inspired him: Mal Waldron, Barre Phillips, Charles Gayle, Mat Maneri, Tim Berne, ...
Guillaume Vanespen is moreover a drum teacher (Maison de la Création de Bockstael 2018-2023), creator and facilitator of "Dance and Musicality", a teaching programme designed for dancers exploring the relationship between dance and music.