Real World Records

Jean-Philippe Rykiel

Born blind in 1961, Jean-Philippe Rykiel taught himself the piano from a very early age. If he recognizes the influence of Thelonious Monk as preponderant in his decision to become a musician, it was on discovering Pierre Henry that he became impassioned by the perspectives offered by synthesizers. His technical mastery of the instrument and his musical intuition rapidly brought him recognition by his contemporaries, which provided him many experiences and collaborations as programmer (Vangelis), instrumentalist (Steve Hillage, Jon Hassell, Didier Malherbe...) or arranger (Xalam, Salif Keita, Papa Wemba, Leonard Cohen, Youssou N'Dour just to cite a few...).