Raphaël Didjaman

Biography

Starting out as a saxophonist and deejay at the age of 20, Raphaël Didjaman has been a didgeridoo pioneer in France since 1995, when he returned from Australia after a long period spent in the Outback, to become a professional didgeridoo maker and luthier. He founded the Tribal Zik Records label in 2007, championing the didgeridoo mixed with poetry and all types of music. Raphaël Didjaman has produced a discography of ten albums, including a trilogy on the poet Arthur Rimbaud, with an eloquent list of French actors and singers. His collaborations with composers Bruno Coulais (Le peuple migrateur) and Philippe Sarde (Quai d’Orsay) led him to compose for the love of music in pictures, and to become a solo didgeridoo player with the Divertimento symphony orchestra conducted by Zahia Zouani.

Conference: Can music help us go back in time?

Since the dawn of time, homo-sapiens have used the voice as an instrument of expression and communication. Thanks to the mechanics of the breath, sound is triggered mainly by the diaphragm, which expels air from the lungs to set the vocal cords in vibration… This use of the breath also enabled man to play musical instruments such as the Didgeridoo in Australia, played by the Aborigines for over 20,000 years. Today, this magnificent instrument has revealed hitherto unknown virtues: multiple cures for sleep apnea, relaxation and other addictions such as quitting smoking through the practice of playing and questioning. What is the history of this ancestral instrument? What is the current relationship between the didgeridoo and today’s aborigines? The Western world’s approach to this long-standing instrument?