Biography
Arjuna Raphaël Pinel, also named Raphaël Mélik, was born in 1975 in a musicians family in Cherbourg, France, and was inspired by Irish and French traditional music. As a child he has been traveling to Ireland with
his father (violin player) and had his first public performances by playing in
the street with his father from the age of 12.
From that he developed a strong sense of self-confidence, spontaneity and joyful creativity, as he realised that you can just be yourself in public,
taking risks to experiment a lot in front of the audience.
After his baccalaureat (A-level) he studied music at the
University of Rennes Haute-Bretagne (France) from 1993-1996 and obtained a DEUG
(Diplome d'Études Universitaires Générales), a University Diploma in Music.
He learned the celtic harp with Anne-Marie Jan.
At the same time his style opened from the pure Irish traditional music to
many different styles: jazz, world-music and improvised music in general.
He learned jazz-piano and harmony, played in Brazilian Batucada (percussion
ensemble), attented some workshops with Shyamal Maitra (Indian percussion master)
and several other masters, learned Jazz-improvisation with the Andy Emler Megaoctet.
He studied by himself Balkan and oriental rhythms which he incorporated in
his compositions, mixing uncommon asymetric rhythms with celtic melodies and French songs
1994 he won the first price for improvisation on the celtic harp at the Kan
ar Bobl, competition for celtic music.
1997-2000 he moved to Montreal, Canada and recorded there his first solo album
Harpyromane in 1998. He toured with the singer Suzy Tremblay (songs in
Latin) and played in Irish sessions, also for Irish dance performances.
2001 He moved to Köln, Germany and did a lot of solo-concerts with his own
compositions. He founded in 2002 the duo and later Trio Melido with jazz-guitarrist
Frank Does and drummer/percussionist Boris Becker. They played
at the Hürther jazz festival near Cologne and released 2008 their CD Pontan
He played with different formations, with Alexander Meyen (violin) and Tansen
Edmund Held, Trumpet and the band Yatra around guitarist an composer Peter Kühnel. He accompanied story tellers like Jens Gottschalk
and Daria Nitschke and was invited a few times as a musician to the storytelling
festival Märchenwoche in Düsseldorf..
2003 he recorded in Montreal his 2nd beautiful solo CD Résolution
2005-2009 he moved to the creative, crazy spontaneous, artistic and spiritual community Open Sky House near Cologne/Köln
2006 he started to travel regularly to India and meet musicians, playing mantras
and oriental music.
2008 he gave a music improvisation workshop at the summer arts festival in Cologne
Germany
2009 he played live music in February for the contact improvisation festival Skiing
on Skin in Fiskars, Finland, and in April at the Easter Impro Festival in Göttingen, Germany, creating a beautiful synergy with the dance and
performances.
Feb-March 2009: He accompanied musically dance therapy workshops in Tampere
(Finland), Milano (Italy) and Bonn (Germany) with Chintana Seppä www.heartspace.nu.
His presence and sensitivity has been very appreciated.
The live music with different instruments and unconventional colors offer a
space of creativity that supports the dancers to come to themselves.
2009 he travelled a lot: India, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Finland, France, Germany.
in November 2009 he moved to Bonn, where he's building a recording studio with his partner Shakya. Together they just recorded a meditative CD with harp and violoncello: Silent Breeze.
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