Press cuttings
Paul Rans is a marvellous singer; you can hear every word, even if you can’t understand them. He shapes the music well, and has a convincing presence. Early Music Review
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Rans & Flagel. L’inventivité et la fraîcheur des interprètes confèrent beaucoup d’atmosphère à ce projet. Les deux voix solistes sont très convaincantes. CHOC! Le Monde de la Musique
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Schwärmerei mit galanter Melancholie: Rans-Ensemble begeisterte – absolut hinreissend! Münstersche Zeitung
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Paul Rans sings and plays with solid proficiency and musicianship and an especially good tone on the lute (which, in the do-it-yourself spirit of this recording, he made himself). Lute Society of America Quarterly
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Paul Rans, cantante liutista e membro storico dei RUM ... uno dei più famosi gruppi di musica popolare delle Fiandre ed un riferimento obbligato per chi fa musica popolare a queste latitudini. Cous Cous
Paul Rans biog, a brief outline
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1969: founding RUM with Wiet Van de Leest and Dirk Lambrechts
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Duo Rum, then trio with Dirk Van Esbroeck , later quartet with Juan Masondo plus Vera Coomans
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Four LPs and tours in Flanders, Wallonia, France, Switzerland, Germany, England, Ireland and the Netherlands..
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1976: Marries Artist Nell Race and moves to England. Start of decades of commuting between the UK and Belgium.
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Works with lutenist Lieven Misschaert as a duo, and then solo (CD’Blame not my Lute’).
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1987: Back in Belgium, founds the Paul Rans Ensemble with lutenist Philippe Malfeyt, viola player Piet Stryckers and recorder player Paul Van Loey, often also with violinist AnVanLaethem. Christmas cd, Antwerp Songbook, Gruuthuse Ms.
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Producer/presenter world music programmes for VRT classical Radio 3 / Klara.
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Collaborates with many musicians such as French singer Claude Flagel, and British trio Coope, Boyes & Simpson. Also back to roots with A la Rum.
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2009: retires from radio work and lives in Dorset once again.
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continues singing and playing with the Paul Rans Ensemble and with A la Rum.
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For a more detailed biography click here:
Paul Rans has collaborated with, among others, the following singers and musicians:
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Philippe Malfeyt (theorbo, Lute, hammerred dulcimer, cittern, guitar); gambist, cellist, vedelaar en arrangeur Piet Stryckers (viola, cello, mediëval fidele, arrangements); Paul Van Loey (recorders, whistles, dulcian); violist An Van Laethem; Olle Geris (bagpiper and singer) ; French hurdy-gurdy plakker and singer Claude Flagel (1932 - 2020); Jokke Schreurs (guitarist in A la Rum) ; Marc Hauman (singer-songwriter, guitarist, also in A la Rum); Wiet Van de Leest (Rum and A la Rum, violist, composer/arranger) ; the late singer, guitarist hoboïst and our friend in Rum Dirk Van Esbroeck (1946 - 2007); Juan Masondo (guitarist and member of Rum) ; singer Vera Coomans; the great singer and songwriter Wannes Van de Velde (1937 - 2008); the Moroccan group Weshm; lutenist Lieven Misschaert; the Capilla Flamenca; singer-songwriter and guitarist Gerry De Mol; nyckelharpa player andviolinist Didier François; violinist and composer Wouter Vanden Abeele; the late lutenist and academic and leder of the Camerata Trajectina Louis Grijp (1954 - 2016); Coope, Boyes & Simpson with Michael Morpurgo and even Steeleye Span playing the sackbut in a recording in 1977…
RADIO
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In 1985 Paul Rans started broadcasting music programmes for the English branch of the Flemish World Service, Radio Vlaanderen Internationaal.
He worked free-lance for BRTN’s Radio 1 and Radio 3, and since 1993 as a producer and presenter of world music programmes for VRT Radio 3, now called Klara.
This also resulted in his production of an award winning series of 8 CDs with Traditional Music from Flanders, besides numerous flamenco, Indian classical, African and fusion CDs (See also Discography - Productions)
In February 2009 he retired from his radio work and his world music programme Hemel & Aarde (Heaven & Earth) in order to concentrate once again on his songs, lutes and sackbut.
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Paul with Lieven Muësen recording Chopi musicians in Mozambique, 1997
Publications
Belgium: Flemish, Walloon and Global Fusion in: World Music, The Rough Guide, Vol. 2, 3rd Edition, Rough Guides, London, 2009
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Belgium: Flemish, Walloon and Global Fusion in: World Music, The Rough Guide, Rough Guides, London, 1999.
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De folk en de revival van de Vlaamse en Nederlandse volksmuziek (met Jos Koning) in: Een muziekgeschiedenis der Nederlanden, hoofdred. Dr. L. P. Grijp, Amsterdam University Press - Salomé, 2001. The story of folk music in A Musical History of the Low Countries.
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Wannes Van de Velde, Text for longbox edition, Universal, 2009
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Wannes Van de Velde, In de maat van de seizoenen, Text CD booklet, Granota, 2006
Marc Hauman, Suisse 1939, Texst CD booklet, De Moeite, 2004
Culturele diversiteit in het muzieklandschap in: Kunsttijdschrift Vlaanderen, november-december 2004. Cultural diversity in the musical landscape of Flanders.
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In de schaduw van de grote dingen:interview met Wannes Van de Velde in: Muziek en Woord, december 2003. In the shadow of greater things.
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Vreemd gaan, in: Muziek en Woord, april 2003. An article on cross-cultural influencers in traditional music.
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Traditionele muziek: vroeger volks, vandaag elitair? in: Goe Vollek, april 2002, ingekorte versie van een lezing voor het DF Cultuurforum aan de KUB op 29-01-2002. Abridged version of a lecture for the DF Cultuurforum at the Catholic University of Brussels in January 2002.
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