ABOUT ME

Simon Brunel is a french multi-instrumentalist and composer with a background in jazz drumming. In 2020, he started developing his solo project and his Trio, where he explores a personal world somewhere in between pop, contemporary classical/jazz and electronic music.

​

Simon grew up with his parents in France ( both teachers) surrounded by music, theatre, films and literature. He started making music at the age of 5, playing on cans with chopsticks. After breaking the chopsticks, he moved on to the National Conservatoire of Nantes (fr). He discovered classical percussion & jazz drums at the age of 8, and graduated at 18 years old where he studied mainly jazz drums and classical percussions, among other modules such as theory, history or composition.

​

On the side he created a jazz band and played in various venues in France between his 13 and 16 years old. They won four national jazz competitions (including a personal composition prize at CMDL, Didier Lockwood jazz high school in Paris) between 2008 and 2010 and played as a support act for artists such as Carla Bley & Lucky Peterson. Some relevant scenes can be Rendez-vous de l'Erdre festival, Europa jazz festival, Jazz in Marciac. On the side of these formal music studies he was stunned by modern music composers that would marry music genres and develop a personal aesthetic in between genres, and would put an interrest mixing Steve Reich, with Coltrane and Moderat.

After the conservatoire, Simon took a step back from jazz drumming, and stopped music for several years, studied Law and Political Sciences, until he moved to London in 2018. However, during these years he kept listen to lot of music, and being influenced by a variety of composers such as Nils Frahm, Olafur Arnalds & the contemporary classical music, Steve Reich & Philip Glass from minimalist music , Moderat & Jon Hopkins from electronic , James Blake & Bon Iver from pop-folk, Hanz Zimmer from music for films.

​

Moving to London, he started a Popular Music Degree at Goldsmiths (James Blake, Gorrillaz) and got particularly interested in Composition, Sound Design and developing a personal musical world. This is when he started working on his solo project and he released his debut solo album Between The Lines in April 2021. Where he explores songwriting, field recording, electronic production, piano, voice, as well as recording himself and mixing/mastering his own music. This album takes inspiration from places, memories and sonic elements of nature, as well as places and sounds of cities and its technology. These sounds helps to narrate a story structured in piano-voice pieces, often electronically processed. 

​

This album gained the recognition of several musicians such as Rob Turner , former drummer of Gogo Penguin (Gondwana Records, Blue Note Records), Daniel Brandt (Erased Tapes Records), Tristan Eckerson (record 1631, 7K! Records). It was reviewed by several magazines and has been broadcasted on BBC RADIO.

​

In 2020, Simon Brunel also created a contemporary jazz trio "Off to the Luna " along the bassist Matis Regnault and the pianist/clavecinist Santiago Gervasoni, where he takes on the roles of drummer, composer and producer. They released their debut single “Nigh Fable” in 2021.

After Graduating in June 2022, he returned to Nantes, and focused on developing his solo-live. He is performing this solo live on piano, voice & electronic drums , helped by live-looping. He also integrated a bunch of analog electronic instruments to bring some live electronic improvisations to the plate. He re-composed the album In Between Lines accordingly. He is also working on his second solo album, Bio-Techno-Philia, that will narrate a clash between Nature and Technology, as well as working on Off to the Luna Trio debut album.

​

He is looking to develop these projects within Nantes and French music scene, as well as the London scene, where he lived and studied. In addition to these projects, in the future he'd like to continue working on sound design and start composing for film, as well as composing for instrumental ensembles.