The making
of a Lyrebird:
Ignas te Wiel(17 may 1969,Rotterdam, the
Netherlands)started his music education at the early age of
four.Being the son of a violin player he picked up the
violin himself at age six and studied this instrument for
eight years.
His father played both jazz and gypsy music thereby
inducing an interest in music from other cultures,an
interest which keeps inspiring his playing style till
present day.
This inspiration made him an autodidact on several
instruments as well as singing techniques.
In the nineties he had private lessons for cuban style/pop
conga playing with Nippy Noya and west african drumming
with Willem Jansen.
Nowadays he studies Dholak(indian hand drum) with Soerej
Sewlal and the tombak with Pasha Karami
Since 1995 he has been active as a professional
percussionist/vocalist,both in the Netherlands and abroad
and appeared at festivals like the north sea jazz
festival,the crossing border festival,festival mundial and
the Amsterdam dance event.
Ignas fuses african and indian grooves with middle eastern
and jazz/fusion patterns bending them to the demands of the
group he’s playing with using his sense for timing and
colour meanwhile creating soundscapes using his voice,small
percussion and shakuhachi(japanese bamboo flute)thus
creating a world that sometimes sound familiar and at other
times otherworldly.
In doing so he resembles the Lyrebird,this amazing creature
that also incorporates different sounds and soundscapes
fusing them with his own thereby creating hybrid songs
bearing his signature;hence the title and emblem of this
site.
