Having studied the piano at the Antwerp Convervatory and jazz & composition in Ghent, Thomas Noël (°1971) ventures out into the big wide world with his guitar. From New York to the Solomon Isles to Israel/Palestine he picks up the sounds of jazz, world music and improvisation. In Melbourne his mentor Emmanuel T. Santos teaches him the tricks of the trade in photography and helps him to discover his voice as an artist – the key words being music, photography, traveling and social commitment. Eventually this will lead him to conceive quite unique projects, not seldom channeled through his foundation ‘Frontiera’ : the Livingstone ensemble with the cd ‘On the Trail’ or ‘The City’s Song’ with its focus on cities like Mexico City, Johannesburg and Ramallah. In 2014 he travels with a group of musicians from Istanbul to Ghent by train. As a multi-instrumentalist and arranger he works with bands like Le Grand Bateau, The Chai Connection and the impro-ensemble Tabarnack. In the world of theatre he produces ‘Boxart’ in The Centrale (a mix of boxing and music) and ‘Passengers’ for the Vieze Gasten – a socio-artistic organisation for which he has become a fixture as a composer and coach.
He has also worked with the likes of Wouter Vandenabeele, Peter Vermeersch and Blindman and he wrote filmscores for films like ‘The Cutting’ by Peter Missotten & De Filmfabriek and ‘Kunst Kleurt’ , a documentary by Nahkla.