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RAPHAËL MARIONNEAU 

créateur d’émotions 

calm down. come home. relax. for more than 20 years, raphaël marionneau has been successfully slowing down his fans’ everyday lives. his relaxing club or cultural events – combined under the umbrella brand abstrait – and his work as a label owner, chillout and radio-dj contrast the rapid changes of our multimedia epoch with a modern interpretation of slowness. raphaël's constant success shows: the multitalented abstrait mastermind has a sure feeling for “zeitgeist”. his projects are joined by one aim: "i call myself soundpilot, because i want to send people on a journey. no matter, whether i choose electronic or classical music, whether i am in a club or people listen to my compilations. i like them to relax and want to generate subtle emotions" says raphaël.

to reach this aim, his most important tool is an eclectic music mix merging ambient, chillout, downtempo, world music, electronica, lounge, balearic tunes and classical music. on top, raphaël intensifies the effects of his abstract sound-world applying a distinctive visual language to be seen at events or on abstrait products. “being a professional designer, graphics and visuals are very important to me. in my opinion, music and images are closely connected. and i try to find images and designs that communicate the music and vice versa. music gives us the inspiration to dream – and i aim to find natural elements and abstract forms that symbolise those dreams without using kitsch or clichés.” 

enjoying the relaxing side of life 

in 1996, raphaël marionneau pioneered chillout culture in hamburg by inventing. having moved from nantes to northern germany just three years before, raphaël gave hamburg its first monthly chillout club at the internationally renowned mojo club: le café abstrait. usually hosting acid jazz and drum'n'bass fanatics, mojo's legendary dance floor turned into a cosy chillout area for up to 400 laid-back nightlife connoisseurs each month. together they indulged in relaxation instead of ecstasy – a completely new aspect to clubbing and the birth of a new life style: the couch culture.

the abstrait philosophy developed during the mojo club days, where le café abstrait was held until the club's close-down in 2003, still lives on today in different club and cultural projects. in 2009, raphaël picked up the idea of his club concept again. at zoé 3, a hip lounge bar in hamburg's entertainment district schanzenviertel, he hosted the regular evening event perle noire. raphaël was too resident dj at the local city beach clubs (HCBC, lago bay, stranddeck) on weekends in summer during many years.  

from club to culture 

raphaël marionneau likes to step off the beaten track. seemingly contradictory collaborations encourage his creativity. among others, it is due to raphaël's commitment that classical music conquered nightclubs and – vice versa – club culture took over concert halls. with le classique abstrait, started at the mojo club in 2001, raphaël marionneau was one of the first who combined classical and club culture by playing dj sets with classical music only. with this unique idea he freshened up the classical genre and reached a new, young audience, unfamiliar with the relaxing effects of debussy, mendelssohn and other composers of four centuries. taking le classique abstrait one step further was raphaël's next innovation. from 2002 to 2006, he redefined classic clubbing at konzerthaus dortmund four times a year by turning its stage into a comfortable lounging area. the regularly sold out shows sent positive waves through the media, even arte tv broadcasted a feature on abstrait. today, raphaël's le classique abstrait tours clubs and cultural venues all over germany inspiring classic and chillout fans alike.

in the past decade, raphaël marionneau took his relaxing concept much further – to new places and spaces. like the firmament for example. in 2002, raphaël launched le voyage abstrait at planetarium hamburg in cooperation with its managing director thomas kraupe. every month, their popular multimedia-show invites an audience of 250 people to see the universe reveal its best kept secrets. meteorites fly by, galaxies sparkle in all their splendour and planets disappear in colourful stardust. in harmony with the optical impressions, raphaël delivers his relaxing music selection that creates the hypnotic effects of this unique experience. while laser and video projections enlighten the 21-metre-high dome of europe's most modern planetarium, the electronic and classical elements of raphaël‘s music carry the listeners into the distance of the universe's enigmatic, infinite width. sold out time and again, the multimedia-show literally turns into a hotspot for hamburg's clubbing and music scene, when top-class guests deliver their musical definition of zero gravity. so far, raphaël could win hit producers like schiller, mousse t., boris dlugosch, the disco boys, blank & jones, atb, timo maas, ulrich schnauss, stimming, richard dorfmeister, etc. as well as one of the leading conductors of her generation – simone young – to join his mission at le voyage abstrait deluxe. since 2016, raphaël proposes “le voyage abstrait” at zeiss-planetarium berlin.

club culture. high culture. couch culture. together they are inseparably linked to raphaël's work. this connection also shows in occasional abstrait special events like the christmas happing le noël abstrait, the live-event le concert abstrait or the culinary le diner abstrait. from 2003 to 2007, l'été abstrait was germany's answer to the balearic chill out culture. at the beach of lübeck-travemünde on the baltic coast. it was a highlight of sandworld, europe's biggest sand sculpture festival. there, thousands enjoyed the sundowners with raphaël's sunny tunes which mingled in perfectly with seagulls' laughter, the smooth breeze and the soft sounds of waves. 

since 2006, raphaël performs le cinéma abstrait, a live-dj set as soundtrack on legendaries german silent movies like “the cabinet of dr. caligari” (1920), “nosferatu” (1922) “metropolis” (1927), “berlin: symphony of a metropolis” (1928) or “der müde tod” (1928) and presented his musical interpretation on many festival in berlin, new-york city, paris, bruxelles, hamburg, palma de mallorca or madrid.

special events and residencies 

raphaël also entered new territories with phil & chill at hamburg's historic concert hall laeiszhalle for four seasons. following concerts of the city state's orchestra philharmoniker hamburg conducted by simone young, he invites music lovers of all ages to enjoy his sophisticated electronic mix at the brahms-foyer. in 2009, raphaël was a part of the cultural program accompanying the international violin competition at hanover initiated by the foundation of lower saxony. at the orangery set in the beautiful herrenhausen gardens he will be playing the klassik lounge with his very own classic music mix helping up-and-coming as well as established musicians and their fans to relax.

in residency at meßmer momentum in the hamburg hafencity, raphaël redefines a modern tea-time for tea lovers at the event called le moment since 2009.

in addition to organizing his own events, raphaël is internationally booked as a chillout and classic dj for cultural and business events alike. his long booking list is adorned by important events such as a sunset gig at the legendary café del mar on ibiza (2001), the elbphilharmonie presentation (berlin, 2008), the jubilee hamburg kunsthalle - 10 years gallery of contemporary art (hamburg, 2007), the dedication of the marco polo terrace at hamburg's new hafencity (hamburg, 2007), the arena-rave sensation white (gelsenkirchen, 2006 and 2007), the salzburg festival (salzburg, 2006), the english big chill festival (herefordshire, 2006) and the designer fashion presentation viktor & rolf for H&M-collection (berlin, 2006), cartier's fragrance presentation in munich (2011), die lange nacht den museen in frankfurt am main (2004) or in the katharine church in lübeck (2011) 

for an important vip-event for avantgarde middle east in dubai in 2008 raphaël shared the open-air stage with tina turner, at konzerthaus berlin he was booked  for the vernissage of the jewellery exhibition “maria callas & swarovski bühnenjuwelen” and in 2006 raphaël helped classic stars at the aftershow of ZDF's tv-gala opernstars to relax. in 2009, raphaël toured in 5 cities in germany and austria for the escada ocean beach club tour. in summer 2010 and 2011, raphaël played at the beach bar “wonnemeyer” on the beautiful island of sylt  or at “vielmeer” on the yacht harbourg in kühlungsborn with many sunset sessions.

some kilometers away from kühlunsgborn, raphaël started in 2011 a dj residency every summers at the luxury 5 stars grand-hotel heiligendamm with the white nights on the beach. it won a great feedback by the hotel guests.  

radio shows 

during this very long period of time, raphaël marionneau has always been working as a radio-dj as well. having started his career in france at the age of 16, he continued this passion once settled in germany and started to concentrate on his mission to strengthen the chillout community. with the popularity of his particular music mix, the radio stations grew: from local radio FSK and cyberradio.de, where he broadcasted raphaël’s sets first, he jumped to klassikradio with his conceptually different weekly show le classique abstrait bei klassikradio from 2001 to 2003 and 2014 to 2017.

in december 2004, he found his new home base at NDR's young radio station N-JOY. every sunday night his two-hour-show n-joy abstrait (23:00 to 1:00) with its fine electronic music selection helps thousands of listeners to slow down and lean back. since 2015, N-JOY still weekly plays his archived shows.

since many year too, raphaël’s show “abstrait” is weekly broadcasted on chill (uk) 

mallorca sunshine live, inselradio mallorca (balearic islands), zen fm (belgium) or play emotions (italy) 

a regularly updated abstrait sessions on the mixcloud stream portal or on many radios worldwide complete raphaël's radio activities. and while the stations switched, raphaël's aims stayed the same: to bring new aspects of relaxation to the people and to build an important forum for the european chillout scene on-air as well as online.

abstrait releases 

relaxation on demand is also available on cd. during the past fifteen years raphaël released 35 music albums (including a music-DVD) mainly on his own label. he started off in the year 2000 with the first part of le café abstrait. in the meantime, the compilation has developed into a very successful series with volume 11 being launched in 2016. other album-series banned the specific sound-worlds of events such as l'été abstrait, le voyage abstrait or le classique abstrait. whether sunny, spherical or classical – they all have amazing chilling effects on the audience. interesting artist-features and collaborations with internationally renowned chillout-musicians complete the abstrait portfolio.

close your eyes and relax: raphaël's new compilations, his radio shows, lounge nights und abstrait-events will help to stay relaxed. (text: ina feistritzer)

selected events & festivals