François Raulin
Biography
From an early age, he was interested in jazz, contemporary and traditional music. In 1979, he travelled to Africa to study rhythms and balafon in Burkina Faso and Benin.
From 1985 to 2000, he toured with Louis Sclavis at festivals around the world, followed by numerous CDs: “Chine“, “Duke on the Air“, “Les violences de Rameau“, “Chamber music“, “Rouge“… From 1994, he played solo piano: “First Flush“, “Ostinato” (2011, Choc jazzman).
In 1996, he collaborated with Stephan Oliva in a duo, then in a sextet (M. Ducret, L. Dehors, C. Monniot, S. Boisseau), with whom he recorded several CDs that won critical acclaim. He toured as a trio with B. Chevillon and F. Corneloup, and created the “French piano trio” with Martial Solal and Jean-Marie Machado.
In 1997, he co-founded “l’orchestre – école Micromegas“, then in 2000, La Forge, an association of improvising composers based in the Rhône-Alpes region.
He composed and premiered “Le Sourire au pied de l’échelle” with Charlotte Nessi at the Opéra Bastille in 2002.
He formed the TNT trio with Burkina Faso percussionist Adama Dramé and double bassist Jean-Jacques Avenel, and more recently, the RBD trio with Adama Dramé and Moroccan oud player Majid Bekkas.
Label Forge publishes albums by the various ensembles of which he is a member: Micromegas, Tian Xia with traditional Chinese musicians, the TNT trio, Sati(e)rik Excentrik on the music of Eric Satie.
In 2013, La Forge initiated the creation of “Son du ciel et des ténèbres“, a rousing encounter of improvisation and Baroque music, composed by F. Raulin, P. Berne, M. Mandel, E. Scarpa, with a string sextet from the Musiciens du Louvre Grenoble and saxophonist Raphaël Imbert, Cie Nine Spirit.
In 2014, François Raulin returned to the piano duo with Stephan Oliva : “Correspondances” and to the piano clarinet duo with Louis Sclavis. He is currently working on several projects, including a tentet with Didier Levallet on compositions by Chris Mc Gregor, and a trio with François Corneloup (saxophones), Ramon Lopez (drums), and Anne Alvaro (actress), inspired by the story of North America’s last Yahi Indian.
He has worked with :
Martial SOLAL and Jean-Marie MACHADO, Michel PORTAL, François CORNELOUP, Claude BARTHELEMY, Jean-Marc PADOVANI, Antoine HERVE, Andy EMLER, pour le théâtre le cinéma et la danse avec Mathilde MONNIER, Hee Jin Kim, Jean Louis COMOLLI, Jean Louis MARTINELLI, Bertrand TAVERNIER, etc.
