Dominique Regef
Dominique Regef (FR) is a musician.
Dominique Regef; photo: Jan Sprij
Originally violin-player, Dominique Regef learned himself to play medieval instruments like the hurdy-gurdy and the israj, instruments that reach back into time, heavy with traditions. He studied the (oriental) musical origins of troubadours and is interested in all kinds of ethnic music. His research is expressed fully in solo concerts, where the emotional force of thousand-year-old instruments are combined with electroacoustics technologies of today.
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Dominique is very reluctant to give out any information on his work, so biographical details are scant indeed. This is probably irrelevant as his reputation in France is huge, working as he does in many fields of music from the rich mediaeval tradition to de rigeur improvised music (with such musicians as Jean Marc Montera). As to the hurdy gurdy itself, its rediscovery in contemporary music continues in an exponential curve. Back in the old days, Leonardo da Vinci thought it was a pretty cool instrument too, coming up as he did with a multiple polyphonic version.
bio: Jon Rose, 1999
