Raphaël GUILBAUD presents his relationship with music, and his encounter with Aura, his instrument.
It's March 2025. I've been discovering the cello for six months, and looking to buy one for almost as long. I've tried almost every instrument on Rue de Rome and also those from a few private individuals, between twenty and thirty in total.
That day, I went to the Violin Fair at La Bellevilloise to meet a luthier who had an instrument I was interested in repairing. So I took advantage of the opportunity. I tried them all. I trained my ear, I talked with the luthiers, I learned. I must say that the cello isn't, originally, my instrument of choice. And yet, it was love at first sight.
For the sound. For its sublime, magnificent, almost divine quality. How else can I put it?
I started playing piano at 8 years old. I stammered, practicing without conviction. The revelation came later, around 16. After meeting someone at a summer camp, I wanted to take up the drums. My brother told me: "The drums are too noisy! Play guitar instead!"
So I got his classical guitar and that's how I started. I played all the time, everything I heard, from scratch as they say: Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, Dire Straits, blues, rock, reggae, singing Brassens… And very quickly, I started composing too!
After two years of lessons with a private tutor, I'm progressing quickly, alongside my studies: final year of high school (science track), preparatory classes, engineering school. That's important too!
At Arts in Lille, I play with DRAZEL, our small student group, and music is taking up an increasingly large place in my life.
So, after engineering school, I enrolled at MAI in Nancy, a school for professional musicians. And there, I really learned. I devoured music and played until my fingers bled.
The idea of being a professional musician has always been with me. But I'm also a true engineer, with this constant need to learn, to understand, to see things through to the end. So music became my passion, my side project, my lifeblood.
I spent fifteen years in the Blue Rose Big Band of Fontenay-aux-Roses, as a guitarist, singer, and a little bit of a bassist too.
In 2020, I started recording a very personal album of seventeen tracks, in which I play all the instruments, sing, and write the lyrics. I love string orchestrations; that's probably why the cello appeals to me so much. The album is still in progress, but it's nearing completion.In 2024, I bought a second-hand NS Design cello. Without a bow at first, I practiced scales and pizzicato arpeggios. I knew nothing about this new instrument, but I approached it like a musician. After a month, I bought a bow, and that's when I truly discovered the sound. I worked on Bach's prelude from the first suite, learned it in two weeks, and played it from memory for my parents' double 80th birthday! So proud!
And then things progressed naturally. A few months later, I discovered the real cello when I started taking some lessons. And there, I understood a new dimension of sound, its depth, like the continuation of a silence, a pure presence.
Spirituality is an essential element in my life. It is the vibration of my soul. With a cello, I touch this, and I return to a time when music was sacred, reserved for scholars. Today, unfortunately, it is becoming increasingly impoverished, and voracious AIs could end up devouring all that remains of beauty within us if we don't provide a framework. Faster, always faster.
But let's get back to the Violin Salon! And the ending, as you might expect…
Yann had two instruments. Both bore a sonic identity that revealed the same hand.
One of them immediately stood out to me. I had an almost instant connection, a "match" as Yann says. After just a few notes, I felt it was the one for me.
The sound was full, singing, and above all, very balanced. As for the look, Yann doesn't try to copy the vintage style, which is as prevalent with cellos as it is with guitars. He has a subtle and elegant visual identity. This understated style demonstrates, in my opinion, a great attention to detail, because we only see the tip of the iceberg, while underneath lies the long and meticulous work of an expert hand.
Yann's playing is anything but demonstrative. It's all about subtle variations in the wood's texture, very light, very pure touches of varnish. The instrument speaks for itself! And the player, of course!
So I discovered my instrument, and I have it for life. I hope to do it justice, for it is an honor for me to be its future custodian. It will play all styles: classical, rock, blues, jazz, Latin, and whatever else life may bring to it. It represents a little bit of the Light of my Soul. That is why I named it "Aura."
Raphaël Guilbaud plays a cello made by Yann Besson.
