Lander Gyselinck

At the age of four, Lander Gyselinck (1987, Ghent, Belgium), developed a strange fondness for kitchen noises: he discovered cookin'! In the following years, the drums would become the conventional instrument for expressing and imitating these noises, so he started creating his own drumset with kitchen gear. Musically, he was raised by his father and his older brother, with whom he started playing at age 12 in a mad, theatrical, funky zappa-like ensemble, Mambocito Mio. Also influenced by his sister, a contemporary dancer and choreographer, he started breakdancing and later founded with Sam Dewaele, Psycho B-boys. Old School hiphop grooves, funk, mixtapes gradually replaced his one and only love, the music of Frank Zappa. Mixmonster Menno showed him how to apply those fresh rhythms via turntablism on the grooves Lander liked so much. Lander started studying at the Conservatory of Ghent, Jazzdrums, where he was taught by Arnoud Gerritse, Pierre Vaiana, Erik Vermeulen and many others.
He discovered a love for free improvisation at jams playing with Bart Maris, Kristof Roseeuw, Jeroen Van Herzeele and Dick Van der Harst, amongst others. In 2008 he met drumphenomenon Jim Black, who opened new perspectives on playing and listening to music. Lander started studying in Brussels, with Stéphane Galland,Kris Defoort and others who taught him how to use new ingredients to spice up his cookin', by opening up and broadening the jazzidiom. As a "jazz drummer" you would know him from lots of different groups such as the new trio of Kris Defoort, LABtrio, productions with Dick Van Der Harst, groups of Toine Thys and many others, flavouring the music with his idiosyncratic style of cookin', experimenting, learning, ever listening!
In 2009 he was rewarded for "Best Soloist" on the XL-competition of Brussels Jazz Marathon, together with "Best Group" and "Public Prize" for his group, LABtrio with Bram De Looze, Anneleen Boehme.
In 2010 he received the prestigious "Toots Thielemans Jazz Award" and played concerts in China with Li Tie Qiao, representing Unesco, Ghent "Creative City of Music".
Brosella gave him a carte-blanche for the jazzfestival in 2011, which lead to a succesfull collaberation with Georgia-Anne Muldrow, Lander's favorite experimental hiphop/soulproducer with his band "STUFF."
In August 2011 his trio, LABtrio won the Grand Prix and the Prix de Public at the prestigious Avignon Tremplin Jazz Festival Competition.

His excentric musical taste is much broader then jazz, expanding the boarders to electronic music, pop, hip-hop, free-impro, indian music, noise and performance...
Bands as "STUFF.", "Beraad Geslagen",collaborations with Esther Venrooy, Kris Dane represent his eclectic taste and focus on "sound".

Every interesting musical idea of any genre of music inspires him to play and write music, which leads to a unique clash of jazz, electronic music, hiphop and contemporary music.
Always eager to learn new things, his search for sound and the thrill of making exciting music with friends goes on.