Training Born in Uccle in 1978, Raphaël Vens entered the Académie de Soignies at the age of eight, where he studied diction, declamation and dramatic art. In 1994, he discovered electroacoustic music at the Academy, where a course had just been set up. He followed this young course with Ingrid Drese for two years.
After a year’s stay in the United States, he took up the course again with Elisabeth Anderson. In 2000, after a five-year course (from which he graduated first), he was awarded the Medal of the City. He continued his training in Soignies with Bruno Abt, and in Montbéliard (at the Ecole Nationale de Musique) with Hans Tutschku, Jacopo Baboni Schilingi, Fred Voisin and Giacomo Platini.
Achievements He has produced several concerts and installations in Belgium and abroad. He has produced several soundtracks for amateur and professional theatre productions (including works by Laurent Gaudé, Mrozek and Buzzati). He took part in Anette Vande Gorne’s sound spatialisation course. In 2000 and 2002, he was a finalist in “L’espace du son” in Brussels, a young competition for the spatial interpretation of acousmatic music.
In recent years he has also developed an interest in real-time interactive devices, live electronics and improvisation. He collaborates with Christian Girardot on the design of electroacoustic film-concerts. He works with Jean-Louis Maton on pieces for percussion and electronics (the first of which, ‘Drum and Bass To Rio’, dates from 2007). With Damien Magnette, he is developing Miniatures Confidentielles (electroacoustic improvisations in public spaces).
He has worked in collaboration with Stephanie Laforce, notably at the Shunt Lounge in London, in Ozo’s Meca Electric Lab (an electroacoustic improvisation group), and more recently in Le Bruit des Pierres (research into the link between history, architecture and music), a project currently under development (Biennale d’art urbain et sonore, Huy 2012). With Anaël Honings, he created the vocal and electronic improvisation duo Ephemerides, for the Chemins d’Onde Festival (multidisciplinary electroacoustic wandering). He is a member of the international musical research group PRISMA.
Compositions performed at a concert FeBEM (since early 2019):
| Compositions | Concerts |
| Chants Aphasiques | 2022.04.23, Casteau (Soignies) |
| Dans les spires du serpent | 2022.09.13, Tribute to Stephan Dunkelman 2022.10.07-09, Autumn Waves Festival (Brussels) |
| Gespräche mit der Ewigkeit | 2023.10.05-08 : Autumn Waves Festival (Brussels) |
| Intuitio | 2023.10.05-08 : Autumn Waves Festival (Brussels) |
| Live / mixte (met Maja Jantar) | 2022.10.07-09, Autumn Waves Festival (Brussels) |
| Quatre études en milieu naturel | 2023.06.09-10-11, Chapelle de Verre de Fauquez |
| Respiration de l’Ombre | 2024.11.30-12-01 : Autumn Waves Festival |
| Résurrection | 2022.04.23, Casteau (Soignies) |