Myrddin is the youngest son of the famous Belgian multi-instrumentalist Koen De Cauter.
Under the wings of his father he learns, at a young age, to play the clarinet (mainly jazz and Gipsy style).
At age fourteen he discovers flamenco guitar and was bitten by the richness and originality of this musical culture.
After learning the fundaments from his father and studying classical guitar in Belgium he went to Spain to take master-classes by some of the greatest names of flamenco: Manolo Sanlucar, Gerardo Nuñez, Rafaël Riqueni, Enrique De Melchor…
Through the years Myrddin mastered a phenomenal technical virtuosity but his first concern has always been the depth of music.
Meanwhile Myrddin is still playing clarinet (and drums) with several bands in Belgium and abroad, and on many records.
The last few years he’s also been arranging a lot and he’s making name as a composer of contemporary classical music with already some big projects under his name.
It is probably this variety of interests and influences that created his original and unique style of contemporary flamenco.
After beginning as (mainly) a solo artist he released in 2001 his first cd ‘Imre’.
Myrddin is now performing with different bands and became over the years a household name in the flamenco world of Belgium.
In 2006 his second album ‘Novar’ was released.
Liner notes by Etienne Wils, July 2005
Myrddin ‘Novar’
Playing flamenco means digging, let that much be clear. Excavation work in the mine galleries of human existence.
But it also means making light-footed tightrope acts in the thin-layered airs of euphoria. Flamenco is a vigorous testimony of people who are bound to go deep and want to fly high. Traditionally the human voice carries the full force of that expression, supported by the guitar and sporadically the piano or, later, the transverse flute.
As soon as the projections of human experiences have materialized in certain forms and concepts, it sometimes becomes difficult to leave them behind again. To be sure flamenco music has developed strong structures, but, as has been shown throughout its age-long evolution, these seldom have a choking effect. In the most recent years flamenco has once more found itself in the tangent plane of other types of music and this can open discussions concerning exchange, playing together, fusion …
The music on this CD stands in the focus of this evolution. The number in which Myrddin and José Toral accompany the singer José Ligero represents the moment of calibration here. Wannes Van de Velde does something very special in this area: he sings Guido Gezelle’s ‘Dien avond en die rooze’ (The evening and the rose) in a truly gripping way in the flamenco idiom. Thus the universality of the tender heart triumphs: the emotions of a famous Flemish poet from the 19 th century expressed in Andalusia’s musical jargon par excellence.
A flamenco guitarist strikes while the iron is hot. He has not learned his trade in the ‘fragua’, the smithy, for nothing. The beats of the hammer on the anvil have taught him the value of the ‘compás’. And that is what you feel in Myrddin’s playing: his well-founded grip on the rhythm and the harmonic development of a piece of flamenco. And it is precisely that unnerving discipline which gives him the freedom to converse with elements from jazz or classical music.
So no tricks, but virtuosity in the service of a valuable mission: the expression of essential existential feelings. Moreover he is clearly convinced that within flamenco this search for the magma of the human heart should not remain exclusively reserved for the guitar. That explains his solidarity with instruments such as piano, bass, percussion.
Whatever the etymological origin of the word ‘flamenco’ may be, a number of Flemish people are giving it a lovely connotation in a poignant way.
Management & booking:
CollaGE Producties
www.collageproducties.be - [email protected]
+32 (0) 485 71 61 57
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