Raphael (born 1948) is an American musician and composer of

ambient music Ambient music is a genre of music that emphasizes Musical tone, tone and atmosphere over traditional Musical form, musical structure or rhythm. Often "peaceful" sounding and lacking Musical composition, composition, beat, and/or structured melod ...

Biography

Raphael F. Sharpe was born in

Tulsa Tulsa ( ) is the second-most-populous city in the state of Oklahoma, after Oklahoma City, and the 48th-most-populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tul ...

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

in 1948. Raised by Benedictine nuns, when his family got ill, he learned

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be #Relationship to other music traditions, distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical mu ...

and

Gregorian chant Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainsong, plainchant, a form of monophony, monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song in Latin (and occasionally Greek language, Greek) of the Roman Catholic Church. Gregorian chant developed main ...

. In 1967, he participated at the

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

Summer of Love The Summer of Love was a major social phenomenon that occurred in San Francisco during the summer of 1967. As many as 100,000 people, mostly young people, hippies, beatniks, and 1960s counterculture figures, converged in San Francisco's Haig ...

, masquerading as a velvet-caped European count playing

gypsy style {{Infobox ethnic group , group = Romani people , image = , image_caption = , flag = Roma flag.svg , flag_caption = Romani flag created in 1933 and accepted at the 1971 World Romani Congress , ...

violin. He studied piano at the San Francisco Conservatory. From there he moved to the

Esalen Institute The Esalen Institute, commonly called Esalen, is a non-profit American Retreat (spiritual), retreat center and intentional community in Big Sur, California, which focuses on humanism, humanistic alternative education. The institute played a ke ...

at Big Sur where he worked for ten years as a teacher and musician. There he started pursuing music as a

therapy A therapy or medical treatment is the attempted remediation of a health problem, usually following a medical diagnosis. Both words, ''treatment'' and ''therapy'', are often abbreviated tx, Tx, or Tx. As a rule, each therapy has indications a ...

, mixing world rhythms and western music. In 1988 he released 'Music To Disappear In' which sold over 500,000 copies. In 1990, Raphael moved to

Maui, Hawaii Maui (; Hawaiian language, Hawaiian: ) is the second largest island in the Hawaiian archipelago, at 727.2 square miles (1,883 km2). It is the List of islands of the United States by area, 17th-largest in the United States. Maui is one of ...

, and married Swiss-born psychotherapist Kutira Decosterd. They founded the Kahua Hawaiian Institute, where they perform musically and teach Oceanic Tantra. In 1992, he founded Kahua Records, the label of his latest works. Raphael's work are all published under his sole first name. Some websites refer to him as Raphael Decosterd (or Décosterd) but it seems to be his Swiss-born wife's last name. The Kahua Institute's website refers to him as Raphael F. Sharpe.http://kahuainstitute.com/kahuainstitute/raphael-kutira
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Discography

As a solo artist

* ''Music to Disappear In'' (1985) – Hearts of Space Records * ''Music to Disappear In II'' (1991) – Hearts of Space Records * ''Angels of the Deep'' (1994) – Hearts of Space Records * ''Intimacy (Music for Love)'' (1996) – Hearts of Space Records

With Kutira

* ''Never Give Up!'' – Kahua Records * ''Sacred Feminine Voices of Bhutan'' – Kahua Records * ''The Calling'' – Kahua Records * ''Like an Endless River'' – Kahua Records * ''Prayer'' – Kahua Records * ''Oceanic Trantra'' – Kahua Records * ''The Opening'' – Kahua Records

With Wendy Grace

* ''Immaculate Heart'' – Kahua Records

With The Shaman Dancers

* ''The Lovers Within'' – Kahua Records

With Alan Cohen

* ''Journey to the Center of the Heart'' – Kahua Records

External links

Kahua Records

Raphael's Maui Eco Retreat

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Raphael 1948 births Living people American male composers 21st-century American composers American new-age musicians American ambient musicians 21st-century American male musicians