About Paradiya

Albert Distelbrink

As a little boy, Albert Distelbrink created music on elastic bands which he stretched between the legs of a chair. No wonder he ended up with the kora, a beautiful 21 string harp-like instrument from West Africa, for a long and passionate relationship.
Besides self-study, he studied the traditional kora repertoire intensively with masters from Guinée, Mali, Gambia and Senegal. Many years he absorbed kora- and other African music styles with lots of enthusiasm. This became the source and inspiration for his own style of playing.
Albert’s kora playing can be heard on his solo album “Kora Dioulo”, eleven traditional pieces enriched with his own rhythmic and melodic variations, which will be appreciated by experienced kora listeners and kora players from Africa as well.
Albert also composes new kora music and is eager to play with other instruments and musicians from other backgrounds, as is the case with the unique project “Paradiya”.

Kees van Boxtel

Kees van Boxtel is playing the flute since a young age, starting with the recorder, later followed by the Silver flute. After playing many different kinds of music (new wave, folk, blues and pop) as well as producing and arranging within these styles, in 2006 the Bansuri (bamboo flute from India) crossed his path. During a trip to India Kees fell in love with this beautiful instrument and became interested in North Indian classical music. Back in Holland he took lessons from Julia Ohrmann, Himanshu Nanda and the great Bansuri legend Hari Prasad Chaurasia and switched direction towards “World Music”. Since 2017 he is learning with sarod player Pandit Alok Lahiri and his son Abhisek Lahiri more about the structures of Indian classical music.
Besides studying the classical Indian repertoire (raga’s and tala’s) Kees was searching for new collaborations with musicians from all kinds of backgrounds. The result can be heard on a lot of albums like “We were born to be light” and “Music from the mountains”. You can listen to his albums via this link

Kees van Boxtel is currently chairman of “Helende Geluiden” (healing sounds), which reflects his love for the beauty of sound. Within the project, “Paradiya” Kees feels at the right place because of the beautiful combination of Kora, Bansuri and African or Indian percussion and its endless composing possibilities.

Paradiya heeft een aantal vaste gastspelers:

Paco Diedhiou

is afkomstig uit de Casamance in Zuid Senegal. Als kind kwamen er veel muzikanten bij zijn familie langs. Paco was nog niet bewust met muziek bezig, maar heeft uit die tijd wel veel muziek opgepikt. Er kwam een moment dat hij bij één van de theatergroepen mocht meespelen als invaller. Toen heeft hij zijn muziekleraar ontmoet en leerde traditionele muziek, maar ook het spelen in moderne orkesten. Er volgde optredens in oa. hotels. Paco is via Frankrijk naar Nederland gekomen en heeft in verschillende groepen en met diverse mensen gespeeld, zoals Thijs van Leer, Menno Bruin, Mola Sylla en Afrika Sabu Njouma. Als Paradiya met Paco speelt bespeeld Paco verscheidene specifiek zuid-senegalese percussie instrumenten zoals serouba, bougarabou, congoma, kalebas en kess-kess.

Josette Pangels

Josette leerde tanpura spelen tijdens chant -en meditatieavonden en werd geraakt door dit prachtige instrument en zijn machtige geluid; alle tonen en boventonen die tijdens het spelen vrijkomen; kleine cirkels van geluid die steeds groter worden en gestaag de ruimte vullen. Een voortdurende herhaling van hetzelfde en toch steeds weer anders klinkend.Fundament en inspiratie voor de andere instrumenten én oogstrelend om naar te kijken.