Gilles Zimmermann

Out of the box/crossover music with no boundaries but harmony. Composer/instrumentalist dedicated to viola da gamba - Open-minded music, because music is NOT only about emotions.

recent music:

http://www.gilles-zimmermann.com/music_between_the_worlds/recordings/recordings.html

born in Nancy (France) raised in Cameroon, discovered music by chance at 11 through brother bringing an old guitar home. Soon started to improvise on mum´s piano, then classical double bass studies while already playing in blues/rock bands.

Looking for something else, went for a while into progressive rock, then into the new movement in France at the time, which was called "musique improvisée", a sort of creative French "free-jazz" wave. Then joined a jazz musician´s association, of which I quickly became president. :)

In London in 1984, toured Europe with rock bands and pop singers, ´til 1991 and the opportunity for a film score in Germany, where decided to stay.

Never fitted in any given genre (who gives the orders?). Invested the money from the second film in a viola da gamba in 1993 (had been dreaming of for ages). This finding my centre of the world, it changed all my musical life, studied Gregorian music and european roots, as well as traditional musical theory in arabian, indian and chinese culture.

1997 trip to India, met wonderful musicians (Amjad Ali Khan, Premlata Sharma, Keshavram Iengar) and confirmed many things I had learned or figured out from books (if only one, then Plato´s Timaeus).

2003 had the first Ruby gamba, the electric viol.

I jobbed in all branches around music, film, theater and ballet (had the luck of standing on the same stage as Rudolf Noureev), from roadie to sound engineer, musician, producer, in classical, pop, jazz and world music scenes.

Years long people used to tell me my music was 20 years too early, and I now decided to go for it, not caring about any compulsory music style just for the sake of making money. Though of yourse my music needs dedicated listeners, will carry on making music in own creative way, it actually resembles an anthology of music, which is why call it a "Crossover". So far audience is between 10 and 65 years old and worldwide, so quite confident about the future.

Currently revamping my website and it is almost finished!