About Raphaël
Find news about Raphaël, his life and personality, the places where he lived and played in the world and in Bristol.
On February 1st 1990 Bernard and Maria Dufresne welcomed their second son Raphaël Flavio Federico into their family.
On April 14th 2017 Raphaël suffered an unexpected aneurysm while he was at the gym. He passed away on Eastern Sunday, April 16 surrounded by his friends and family at Southmead Hospital.
HIS STORY
Raphaël, Raf or Rapha, as he was known at various times through his life, was not a conventional young man he was someone who quietly, with no fuss, strived to make a difference in this world.
Raphaël was able to switch his focus from one project to another, he had a thirst to learn.
He was open and caring, inquisitive about life, and though at times he would describe himself as shy he had an exceptional ability to interact with anyone. He could strike up a conversation with little or no effort and he'd share anything without expecting anything back in return.
Raphaël's experience of life was gained from the many different places he lived with his family and from being half French and half Italian.
Each time they moved Raphaël would be heartbroken leaving his friends and everything familiar to him behind.
Throughout his life Raphaël would make time for his family always meeting up with them each summer at their home in Patti, Sicily. "This was the only place that has always remained fixed in Rapha's life".
He was also there for any reunions of his father's family and a strong member of the cousin group of 21 members."
He was good at abstract things, maths was a strong point at school.
He was a great thinker who would study subjects to the nth degree.
But he also enjoyed showing off. This first showed when he was a young boy : "he loved films and would study them, watching them time after time until he knew the script by heart, he would then dress up and mimic his favourite character.
Throughout his life, an other passion was football playing, always taking the game seriously.
Pasquale remembers "We played every Wednesday Night. One night Raphaël turned up in his gardening clothes, he'd forgotten it was Wednesday and rushed straight from work, cutting off the bottom of his jeans so he could play effectively."
Moving around the world built his independence and in New Delhi a young Raphaël travelled with the local rickshaws. "He would negotiate his own prices" his Dad told me" we found it hard but we accepted that he was growing up and wanted to find his own way in the world".
In Copenhagen he was introduced to the Danish culture and began to experience different ways of living, starting to adopt an alternative lifestyle. "There were parts of Copenhagen" explained his parents "that were community driven and full of artists and musicians. It was here that English became his main language having studied at French schools all his life and this was where his philosophy of sharing also grew in strength".
During university Raphaël spent time in his Summer break with Mia in a Kenyan school helping the children to learn, playing music and enjoying games of football with them.
Other holidays were spent in Italy teaching children English at summer camps and another summer he used his architectural studies to help with a project at Easton in an occupied Church, All Hallows Hall, to create a new space that could be used by the community.
Raphaël enjoyed architecture but wasn't as keen to join "the rat race". He wanted to use his knowledge to help the community with projects that gave something back to the people living there. He didn't like segregation, had no time for elitism and liked to be involved in all aspects of the work. His social conscience was as important as his music. If he could interlink the music, his studies and his social conscience, this was perfecto!
He finished his degree in 2013 graduating in front of the cathedral.
He moved many times after university and became increasingly frustrated so he bought himself a van, travelling to Manchester to pick it up. He started to design and build himself a room in the back of the van putting portholes in and having every intention of living in it eventually.
Everyone who met Raphaël couldn't help but to be touched by him.
Pasquale described him 'He was such a kind, considerate person who would help anyone out if he could. He let me stay with him when I finally settled in Bristol, I was more or less a stranger to him but it didn't matter to Rapha, he still gave me somewhere to sleep.
Raphaël believed that music could make a difference. He started to study music in Paris. The family enrolled him at the Conservatoire where he went to learn the violin but he rebelled against their methods and they asked him to leave. Luckily this coincided with a move to London in 1998.
He continued the violin, initially with an English lady but she recommended his parents try a different teacher, a Greek lady. She accepted Raphaël for what he was, accepting his moods and thus his thirst for understanding music began to take shape.
In 2003 the family moved to New Delhi, where again he continued his violin tuition but alas he wasn't compatible with the teacher and so he persuaded his parents to allow him to switch to guitar. Yet again the fates had brought him to someone who understood him, an engineer who played guitar as a hobby. Raphaël learnt from him how to play by ear without sheet music and he progressed quickly.
When the family moved to Copenhagen in 2006 Raphaël met Peter who remained a friend throughout his life. Peter was a good guitar player but up until now Raphaël would only play in his room, he was too shy to show people what he could do. With Peter he found a kindred spirit, someone who encouraged him to get out and perform.
When Raphaël arrived in Bristol in 2008, he was ready to take his music to another level.
He shared halls with Paddy and together they would jam until the early hours…., in fact Raphaël eventually got kicked out for making too much noise!
In their second year they lived on Baldwin Street and The Old Duke became their local pub, listening to music there and then returning home to jam.
In the third year they moved to Arley Park. Despite sound proofing the room, they could still be heard playing some 100 meters up the road!
Mattia on behalf of Immigrant Swing wrote:
"On first impression you would encounter a highly educated, articulate, talented young man: dressed in rags with long dirty fingernails on his right hand, shaggy hair, a beard and glimmering deep brown eyes with a huge honest smile. You couldn't place his accent, his many languages and his thirst for knowledge showed you couldn't judge the book by the cover. People would ask us "where are you from?" and we would respond with " We are immigrants".
One summer in 2012 a close friend introduced Rapha to the Manager of the Old Duke, he was from Columbia and this prompted them to mix their sound with a view to forming a band, mixing the styles of manouche and hip hop. They then met a tuba player from Sardinia and thus "Immigrant Swing" was born and looking to expand the sound they took to playing with a multitude of amazing musicians from all over.
The band may have changed over time but our motto was always the same "together with patience, love and understanding we will get there, wherever that is. We played at festivals, in the street and on boats, at pubs, weddings, birthdays and wakes. Rapha would play anywhere he felt there was the need for soul healing and the band was his vessel for this.
We all remember the long roads over-night, nights spent camping wherever we could. His energy drove the project forward and his philosophy was the basis of what the band stood for.
Mao wrote to Raphaël saying:
"We can never replace you but we will never forget you".
RAPHA’S VAN
In 2016 Raphaël bought a van and started his conversion into a camper van, ideal instrument for a gypsy musician!
He started the work, made the plans and tried to use only recycled materials
The van allowed him to facilitate his musical projects:
Festival tours with the band in summer and autumn 2016
a trip in Europe, to Berlin, in October 2016
The conversion project was still going on in April 2017….
BERLIN TRAVELOGUE
6 October 2016
Hello!
I am in Calais : very interesting day, full of encounters, stories and music.
Tomorrow I go to for busking, then to Utrecht to see Catalina.
Un bacio.
11 October 2011
I finally arrived in Berlin after 5 days of travel through Calais Antwerp and Utrecht.
In Utrecht I saw Catalina after 10 years, it was special! Otherwise, the trip is fine, the Europeans seem to like my music, the busking was far beyond what I expected! Yesterday's trip was long and tiring from Utrecht to Berlin, more or less 6 hours drive.
I arrived in the evening and I briefly meet Mia ..
I hope everything is fine, thank you for sending me the photos of Luanda, it looks very beautiful! I will try to stay in touch!
A bacio Raphaël
17 ottobre 2016
Well here I am in Berlin since a week! It 's great here, I start to really know the city and even speak a little German. I was given a folding bike, so I ride a bike most of the time. In general, I organize myself and go busking in the morning and to concerts or jam sessions in the evening.
Baci Raphaël
From: Bernard
23 Oct 2016
Dear Raphaël,
You must be like a fish in the water in Berlin! Thanks for the news of a few days ago.
October 25, 2016
Hello!
Haha, yes, anyway a very wet fish because it rained a lot these days!
Once again, everything is going well, the meetings are always numerous. Today I'm going to see a free concert at 1 am at the Berlin Philharmonie, they do it all on Tuesdays, and I'm going to use this opportunity to go and see the Berlin western neighborhoods a bit. Till now I was rather in the south (Kreuzberg, Neukolln) east (Friederischsein) north (Prenzlauerberg).
Otherwise, I leave Berlin this Friday morning, I think to pass from Kassel to see the brother of Mia, then Eindhoven, Antwerp, Calais, Bristol
Baci Raphaël
November 2, 2016
ciao!
I finally got back to Bristol yesterday after a long journey. After Berlin I went to Kassel with Mia's brother. It was very interesting, he lives in a community slightly outside the city with some great people. Some very interesting things going around in terms of alternative living. I think this trip made me realise that all the answers to the world's problems have already been thought or done, the problem is linking all these amazing projects together. One may have found out how to produce energy locally, the other how to have organisational structures that don't centralise decision making etc etc... The issue is that all these need to be all linked together because all the ideas are there, they are just spread out across a wide range of communities and organisations. I suppose the difficult question is how to create a link without a centralised body, cause that is the essential problem... the only solutions we seem to be able to think about is finding ONE structure to solve all problems rather than have a multitude of solutions for a multitude of contexts, all synchronised and working together...
Anyway, lots of thoughts...
After Kassel I went to Eindhoven and did some car sharing so I picked up a few Syrians actually... it was amazing to hear their stories, they were coming from quite educated wealthy backgrounds and they never thought they'd find themselves in this situation of Exodus... Beautiful people
Then went to Eindhoven, t's a very musical city actually and found a few really nice places to play and jam with the band. I think people really liked it, everyone was offering me beers, the bar staff gave me some soup and told me to come back with a band and play there (which has happened quite a lot!!)
I am now back in Bristol but I will be in bath on the 3rd and 4th for a gardening job, then we have the album launch on the 5th of November which should be a great night!!
Quindi tutto bene! Spero che tutto vada bene in Angola
Un bacio,
Raphaël
RAPHA’S STUDIO
In March 2016 Raphael moved his place from Old Market to Stokes Croft where he got a studio in the PRSC building, 14 Hillgrove street. In such a way he landed at the heart of the Bristol political and artistic scene and enforced his “minimalist” stance.
One year later, he wrote to a friend:
“…you’ve appeared in a strange period of my life. A period where I am trying to find my freedom in an insane world…A period where I’ve seen stripping back to the bare essentials, to understand what is really important…
A period where attachment represent the chains to my golden cage…
I’ve been searching for universal love free of attachments and rejected narcissistic love which poses relationships to feed the ego.
These thoughts led me down an amazing journey that has thought me so much and I am glad for many of the choices I made. It’s been an amazing journey full of music, synchronicities, encounters and I have been blessed with so many amazing people around me”.
RAPHA’S PLACES IN the world
The map shows the places where Raphaël and his French and Italian family lived as well as some of the places that he visited in the course of his life.
RAPHA’S PLACES IN THE UK
The maps shows the different houses where Raphaël lived in Bristol, the pubs where he played with his band, the recording studios, the festivals, etc.