VI.BE

Raphael Malfliet was born in Dendermonde, Belgium in 1990 and grew up in Hamme. He started playing electric bass at the age of twelve. Wanting to pursue a life and career in music, Raphael attended the conservatory of Antwerp where he had classes with Nicolas Thys, Benoit Vanderstraeten, Kurt Van Herck and followed masterclasses with greats Larry Grenadier, John Hébert, Anders Jormin, John Scofield and many more.

Raphael became active as a sideman in different kinds of projects with fellow students. Winning prizes with some of them: Leaven (Jazzcontest of Mechelen) & Space to Breathe with visual artist Joke Derycke and dancer Olivia Van De Peer (Champ's D'Action LabO #4)

After graduating in 2014 Raphael left for New York for a period of three months to get inspired by the city and it's musicians. His experiences there made him become interested in contemporary classical music and composition, Focussing intensely on how to connect those interests with free improvised music, he started to explore new sound possibilities on the electric bass using a bow and prepared techniques.

During this process he was lucky to have played with and learned from great musicians such as Lucie Vitkova, Mary Halvorson, Fay Victor, Carlo Costa, Todd Neufeld, Flin Van Hemmen, Sarah Bernstein, Pascal Niggenkemper, Randy Peterson and Michael Attïas. In his work as a composer Raphael has been developing a personal style which incorporates aesthetic ideas from modern/contemporary classical music and a compositional language designed for improvisers. In order to leave enough freedom and to allow flexibility in his written scores, Raphael makes use of a mixture of traditional notation, graphic scores, symbols and written directions.

Raphael is currently leading a New York trio which also features Todd Neufeld on guitar and Carlo Costa on drums and percussion. They recorded Raphael's first album as a leader in November 2015. Noumenon was released November 1st 2016 on Ruweh Records followed by a tour in Europe and Japan.

Noumenon gained critical acclaim for it was voted BEST DEBUT ALBUM as well as BEST ALBUM OF 2016 by Karl Ackerman and Sergio Piccirilli in the the ANNUAL NPR CRITICS POLL. Raphael was also voted NEWCOMER OF 2016.

Newcomer of 2016

http://elintruso.com/2017/01/08/encuesta-2016-periodistas-internacionales/

Best album + Best debut

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/11th-annual-npr-jazz-critics-poll-pleased-have-been-music-ackermann

"Het getuigt van durf, maturiteit en visie" - Guy Peters

http://www.enola.be/muziek/albums/27545:raphael-malfliet--noumenon

In 2016 Raphael was supported by the Flemish Government to return to New York for another period of three months. This time to do research at the NY Public Library, play concerts and sessions in order to develop his interest in contemporary composition and his improvising style on the electric bass.

Raphael is currently working on a solo performance for bowed bass guitar and will be touring in Belgium, Holland, Germany and Switzerland in June, together with German saxophone player Leonhard Huhn. Raphael is also a part of Jennik Verlinden's singer-songwriter duo 'Human Show' and Stijn Demuynck's trio 'Grundstein'.