Stéphane Galland

Belgian drums phenomenon Stéphane Galland was born into a musical family and received his first drum set at the age of three.

When he reached the age of nine, he decided to take lessons in classical percussion at the conservatory at Huy, Belgium and started playing jazz with his fellow pianist Éric Legnini two years later. At the age of 13, having had the opportunity to play with the best jazz musicians in Belgium, he developed a growing interest in this musical field, and studied its entire tradition, back from the original New Orleans masters all the way to the most daring avant-garde pioneers.

At the age of 16, Stéphane and Éric Legnini joined veteran bassist Jean-Louis Baudoin to form Jeanfrançois Prins’ first quartet as a leader.

Always in search of new musical experiences, Stéphane met Pierre Vandormael, Fabrizio Cassol and Michel Hatzigeorgiou, and later with the last two, formed the band called AKA MOON. The band, which recorded over 20 CDs and performed worldwide (Europe, Africa, Asia, the United States, Canada, South America, the Caribbean Islands, India…), has been a unique and invaluable field of development and experimentation with different musical traditions.

Besides this huge body of work, Stéphane Galland has been performing and recording with numerous famous artists from different horizons including Joe Zawinul, Joe Lovano, Mark Turner, Robin Eubanks and vocalists Ozark Henry, David Linx, Axelle Red, Zap Mama, Novastar as well as  many different groups using new developments in rhythm and harmony such as Dhafer Youssef, Nguyên Lê, Nelson Veras, Thôt, Kartet.

Stéphane was the drummer for many special projects including African Voices (with Oumou Sangare, Me’shell Ndegeocello, Baba Sissoko), Aka Moon & 600 children (with a unique gathering of a 600 Children choir), Homage to Jaco Pastorius (with Toots Thielemans, Othello Molineaux, Felix and Julius Pastorius, etc….), to Jeff Buckley (with Marie Daulne (Zap Mama), Kris Dane & David Linx), Homage to Friedrich Gulda with Martha Argerich, Alexander Rabinovitch and Gautier Capuçon, Philippe Boesmans’ opera “Wintermärchen” (on Deutsche Grammophon), Anne-Teresa de Keersmaeker Rosas Dance Company “In Real Time” and more than 260 shows with Alain Platel’s widely acclaimed “VSPRS” and “Pitié!”.

In the summer of 2011, he founded his own project called “LOBI”, exploring multiple ancient musical traditions in a modern, futuristic and alchemistical approach. He released his first album as a leader, “Lobi” in 2012, featuring pianist Tigran Hamasyan.

Starting in January 2014, Stéphane Galland has joined Ibrahim Maalouf for several of his projects.

In late 2018, Galland released his new personal endeavor: Stéphane Galland & (the mystery of) Kem, a highly sophisticated concept album in which he “visits the rhythmical roots where all the musical traditions that he has rubbed together and integrated into his own language converge and explores a specific space that allows the integration of all these concepts”.

Stéphane Galland teaches at the KCB (Royal Music Conservatory of Brussels), and gives seminars, clinics and master-classes worldwide.

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