Rapha’s way
For Rapha, Discipline, Focus, Patience, Perseverance and Willpower were the essential means for achieving, through music and deeds, his life goals. For him, Body Mind and Soul had to be in perfect equilibrium: living is believing.
“But whilst tomorrow is on the way, I feel yesterday's tomorrow is slowly slipping away”
RAPHA’S PHILOSOPHY
A giant puzzle
”You have to become the dynamic that the world forms you are in is, to be in the same way, immersed in the context.
The world (or your projects) already contain the answers about who you need to be...
All the answers are already there, you just need to know how to ask the right questions...
It is all there in front of you, like a giant puzzle, waiting for you to realise your struggle. It is there that a person it's got a meaning.”
Some who knew him may have been astonished by his immoderate use of his freedom, his quest for the absolute, his desire to go to the bottom of things without regard for conventions, for the cement which, we believe, keeps us anchored to the society. He was provocative, but not destructive. When he raised the hammer to break, he had the trowel in his other hand to rebuild, and a generous cement. It was necessary to take the time to listen to him till the end. Behind the leg of his heel-foot was the generosity of his tender hand, the light of his smile, the path drawn and prepared for him and for the others, by a long work on himself.
He was an extremist: of the rigor, the joy of life, the desire to put everything into practice so that this joy remains. He may have made concessions because they are sometimes necessary, but as limited as possible. The essential thing was to draw the truth, the one that can frees us from our contradictions, our conflicting instincts, our unfulfilled aspirations, our untapped talents. He slashed the patches of ease, in that he was a doctor of the soul.
It may have happened that he would seek to impose a point of view – everybody does have his own weaknesses – but, within the controversy, he was looking for the truth. All his friends have observed and admired his ability to learn the lessons for himself and for his opponent from any confrontation. His mission was to flush out the lie, track down the ease, find the authentic under the polish of good manners.
He led a life that somebody could find a bit difficult, not owning anything, in order to to be free from any material burden. Not living in couple, in order to obey only to his inner voice. He even went so far as to live in his van, with no room of his own, but a minimal space at his disposal, his studio, just the necessary.
Without terrestrial attachments other than his van, which sometimes played tricks on him, he had infinite availability for others. He was at the disposal of the community. He did undoubtedly learn a lot about the terms of the exchange, the gift, the use of the time that is at our disposal as soon as it is totally appropriated.
He has probably explored other ways, which he would have explained to us later, still in the draft stage.
As he did not keep anything for himself, he did give everything back. His friends are struck by all what he has taught them, but also by the ability he had to learn.
The people with whom he was in harmony emphasize this ability to take and give. The happiness he had of passing on to them what he had learned - thinking that this was going in good hands - , the happiness they had in listening to him, for what he had to teach them.
Bernard
POEMS & LYRICS
Rapha often expressed himself through a piece of music and the words of others, making them his own. In fact he wrote :
Words are funny beings
They have a life of their own
Mine are too generic, pathetic
To express the magnitude and
Complexity of what I'm trying
To say.
Yet at the same time,
I'm sure someone
Would be capable of expressing
What I want to say
In only a few words.
Like a great peace of music
Which, within its simplicity,
Manages to express deep
Complex emotion, yet
The body mind soul interaction is so clear
That the message comes through
Clear as day.
AN HONEST LIAR
I am an honest liar,
Unintentionally I get higher
I crave for no desire
Tomorrow I'll stop with cider
Once in a while I go away
But always with a return journey
Like a monk meditating at ten miles an hour
I think about not being theoretical
And I talk of Action
The richest man knows all about poverty
The best of the worst in a vase
I don't get burnt when I jump through fire
I am an honest liar
Car always tell the truth
Even when I lie
THE TRUTH AFTER LYING
I dislike what I do most
I think it's the best of the worst
I am the busiest layabout you know
I'm the most extroverted introvert
I'm trying to reach the boundary of infinity
I can't stand negativity
I am the most industrious lazy
Never say never
One more one more… I'll start tomorrow
Throw up
I offend people often but take offence easily
Always remember to never forget
DON'T WORRY
Don't worry, tomorrow will be ok, but until then, today, you got hell to pay
So here we are, chasing life's future dreams,
Only tomorrow can we be redeemed.
And so we go through life, living this dream,
Turning into a nightmare, a horror scene!
Waiting to wake up and live the dream,
Coz the journey was life, and arrival the dream
As going on a journey, far far away
Thinking man I can't wait for the day
I finally arrive at my destination
Feeling no different
This way of seeing life you're already dead
The only destination that by all
Will be shared.
OLD FRIEND
(story of a modern slave)
And he works and he works,
Till he can't work any more,
Than he drinks and he drinks,
Until hitting the floor
Where he sleeps till the morning
Then starts again
This is his fate until life's end
Why so bad on yourself my old friend?
TESCO (Lyric by Raphaël)
Can you grow, can you sow
Can you tend for your own
Or do you need Tesco
Deciding which seeds are grown
With no intendancies we will
Fear for tomorrow
How will we feed and shelter our sorrow
In a world of plenty but
Of nothing at all
All one can do is hear nature's call
You can hear her weeping across the sea
Ho my sons what has happened to thy
None growing but one is how for you
Have come
Leaving Tesco deciding what we will become.
THE BETRAYAL BY TECHNOLOGY
Within modern society, tasks are totally fragmented. This means that ultimately no one carries responsibility over it.
If a dam fails, who's to blame? Engineer, Worker, Architect, Politician?
Modern man is only (in a total irresponsible way) carrying out his technical task without care or knowledge of the outcome.
The technicians of the technical society do not accept moral, ethical or spiritual judgement being passed on technique. Actually the highest freedom of mankind is to be able to make those judgements.
Raphaël did participate to road and school construction works as a volunteer in Kenya in summer 2011, got involved in many self-built projects using traditional techniques (such as comb construction), in roofing, in landscape gardening, etc.
Last but not least his Van Conversion Project.
He was proud to be able to achieve both tasks : design & conception + field work.
He was working against Separation Fragmentation and Segregation, proposing with his life an HOLISTIC view of the world.
ARCHITECT AND ACTIVIST
Music and Architecture were for Raphaël means for fulfilling his time goals in life. He started his social engagement with Architecture when he was still a student.
Convinced that :
"Architectural culture tends to priorities aspects associated with the static properties of objects : the visual the technical and the a temporal;
Hens the dominance of the aesthetic style and form and technique…with suppression of the more volatile aspects of buildings : the processes of their production, their occupation, their temporality and their relationship to society and nature."
His aim was "to demonstrate the fact that spatial production belongs to a much wider group of actors, from artists to users, from politicians to builders, with a diverse range of skills and interest."
With this vision in view, Rapha got involved in the All Hallows Hall Project whose aim was to regenerate a derelict church to promote community participation in the built environment. The project began as a squat where individuals from all walks of life gathered including builders, electricians, carpenters, artists as well as homeless people. This inclusive group thus began renovating the space mainly using reclaimed construction materials such as old scaffold planks.
The driving impulse questions the developer led "regeneration" and encourages community participation in the built environment.
In the same time, in 2011, Raphaël started his collaboration and volunteering work with PRSC, a Bristol Social Enterprise based around the idea of encouraging/empowering the general public to take a more active part in the built environment through the arts. This experience refined his knowledge of practical Construction, Building Services and General Design issues, the most significant experience being involvement in the conversion of an old commercial building in an Art Gallery/ Art Studios (General Building Maintenance & Repair; Architectural Model Making; Art Exhibition Layout Design; Artistic Street Furniture Projects; Design & Build Art Gallery Lighting System) and, lately, the requalification of the Bear Peat (library, outdoor gallery, stage project drawings, etc).
Between 2011 and 2017, Rapha did also participate to some of the major campaigns of the People Republic of Stokes Croft, such as the Tesco campaign, the Eviction Notice, the Westmoreland House, etc.
RAPHA SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT
Raphaël was engaged on many important social battles:
First of all, he was against any form of violence. This is a main theme in his musical repertoire.
When he was a student at UWE, he was helping the Palestinian cause by organising fund rising and did participate to an occupation in order for Palestinian students to get scholarships.
The preservation and community management of natural and human resources was a main concern for Raphaël. His dissertation, for instance, was on the topic "Can community based water management help resolve India's current water crisis?"
From Kenya, where he was working as a volunteer, he wrote to his parents : "During the rainy seasons gullies are formed that bring water directly to the football field and on the foundations of a church that is about to be destroyed : we built a stone wall to divert the water flow in another direction! Oh well, I noticed that despite the rainfall is abundant in some seasons, almost no use of rainwater is made. I'm talking to many people to try to convince them to install systems to exploit it!"
Raphaël was engaged in battles such as that against Waste. In fact, most of his projects as student, architect and labourer were linked to the idea of recycling. Conceptually, he tried to define the frontiers of this concept in society. For this reason, he was always on the side of the LEFT BEHIND and many of his songs do concern their world.
I am the waste man, going around this city
Collecting your debris
I am on a mission to clean this city
Yet the evil eye keeps trying to judge me
Look at them throwing away
...
With all your talks of social justice
What you leave behind is just this
Add it to your list
you search for universal bliss
I go around the city and all I see is gold
This is the story that you got told
