Concert : Ripple

Alec Ilyine is a Belgian musician and sound engineer who plays Solo Acoustic Fingerstyle Guitar using the 6- and 12 string guitars, Charango and Ud. His musical projects range from solo pieces to the soft dreamy songs of duo Vi Vanellus, a new collaborative electronic setup with ‘- alyin -’, multi-instrumental experimentation, free improvisation, fieldrecordings and collaborations with theater, dance and fine arts. Alec founded Fly Studio in 2018, an intimate recording studio and concert venue in Brussels.

Alec began the guitar when he was 10, starting with classical training that expanded over the years to accommodate his interest in pop, rock, blues and finally jazz, in which he holds a Master in Music for Jazz Guitar from LUCA, school of arts, Lemmens institute in Leuven. One of his most important formative moments, however, was when he was 14. An uncle in Australia played him some LPs from the Takoma Records label and he was instantly hooked, recording them onto tapes that he listened to non-stop for weeks on end. Alec absorbed the sounds of artists Bukka White and Max Ochs, and was so inspired by a Robbie Basho record that he even wrote his Master’s thesis about him in 2004. Most of all, artists like these inspired him to experiment and invent his own fingerpicking method.

After his Master’s, he traveled extensively, studying Hindustani classical music in Calcutta, India, and Flamenco in Spain. Back in Belgium, he started learning the Ud and Arabic music while collaborating on a range of projects as a musician and sound designer.

When his Australian uncle passed away in October 2020, Alec decided to compose a song in his honor. One song grew into an entire album that pushed him to experiment even more with fingerpicking while also delving into more personal themes, exploring a range of sounds from simple poignant melodies to fast picking and abstract washes. The songs are played on 6 and 12-string guitars and on Charango, a South American folk instrument.

RECORDINGS

Guitar Soli (2009) is a clear nod to Robbie Basho. Besides original compositions it also comprises some renditions of popular songs by The Beatles and Van Morrison.
13 miniatures (2020) an improvised acoustic session with Gilbert Isbin and Dirk Wachtelaer.
Homage to josef albers, improvisations (2019) the second part of a duo with Dirk Wachtelaer, an ongoing project inspired by the work of Josef Albers. On electric guitar and FX.

VIDEOS

‘Ripple’ played live along the canal in Brussels, a composition inspired by the sound of water formed by the flow of a kayak
‘Isla del Sol’ – Composition played live on charango, inspired by the Isla del Sol, an island in Lake Titicaca, where the sungod Inti was born. Super peaceful place, the lake is so immense it looks like a sea…