Carel, Sylvain
French composer Sylvain Carel's music is an expertly crafted blend of contemporary, instrumental electronic music with strong ethnic influences without ever becoming 'world music'. Combining synths, guitar and various other acoustic instruments, rhythms and vocal textures, the music is an extraordinarily captivating and varied soundtrack style.
Sylvian grew up on the music Van der Graaf Generator, King Crimson, Amon Duul, Tangerine Dream and Vangelis as well as the classics, in particular Dvorak, Ravel and Holtz. It was little surprise then that after a brief flirtation with rock music in his early 20's, and 5 years studio work writing music for singers and producers, Sylvain's musical path lead him into creating movie soundtracks and evocative landscape style music using an ARP synth and his beloved Stratocaster.
Later, Sylvain took time out to work with MAO and study composition, harmony and computer music. He built his own studio, reinvented his sound and style with new synths and set about creating his debut album. During this time, he visited North Africa, The Red Sea, The Middle East, India and Nepal, soaking up the the feel of these mystic, captivating and magnetic countries as influences in his music. The resulting instrumental music is clearly imbued with an underlying pulse of ethnic colours and atmospheres.