Clement Le Gal works on A&R @ Label Entreprise and teaches several modules at the Wisseloord Academy in Paris.
Career Development
Kahina Khimoune
Coming from a family of artists, Kahina had the chance, from an early age, to be immersed in this privileged environment. At the age of 8, she began playing the piano at the National Regional Conservatory of her city and, throughout her schooling, joined classes offering students the opportunity to follow school programs as well as reinforced artistic education, the expected extension of which is the Professional orientation.
With a General Literary Baccalaureate in hand, she studied Modern Literature at the Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris, but she quickly understood that she felt more at ease and above all more useful, behind the scenes than on the front of the stage. Already perceiving, within her family, the problems with which artists in the cultural sector are confronted in administrative and relational management; these difficulties that hinder them in the accomplishment of their artistic and creative work, Kahina came up with the idea of ​​offering services to artists. She then joined a renowned school of communication and press officer in Paris, after which she worked for 5 years at Radio FG as a relationship manager with international resident artists.
After a two-year stay in London, in 2009 she joined David Guetta’s team, where she is the administrator of many companies. At the same time, she takes care of organizing all his professional and artistic meetings, organizes writing workshops, accompanies him in the studio, thus assisting in the genesis of many worldwide successes. Kahina acquired international expertise in the development of artistic careers, in the management of production and publishing companies specializing in music.
During her 12 years spent alongside David Guetta and through her many encounters, she found that the musical field is not the only one concerned but that other sectors are just as affected by the difficulty of collaborating with serious, reliable and trustworthy people. Aware of the fact that the digital age has considerably transformed culture and in particular music with streaming, and fully determined to help all these artists find themselves in the jungle of these new codes, both administratively and digitally, in 2021, she decided to create Kahin@ gency, a structure in harmony with an evolving and ambitious context, but responsible, at the height of its convictions.
Davide Ruffini
Davide Ruffini has been connected to Wisseloord for years as mixing engineer. He has worked with names as The Voice, Soul & Noamle, Supa Dupa, NAVY, Nelson Dialect, Leelo, MAJAN, Kilian & Jo.
James Castelijn
In 2012, James joined the DJ collective BANGANAGANGBANGERS, focusing on producing and releasing their own work. Strongly inspired by artists like Noisia, Eprom, Hudson Mohawk, Ivy Lab, G Jones & Joker, they immersed themselves in the world of underground bass, (half-time) DnB, and glitch hop. Despite operating in a niche market, the energy of both the music and the DJ act brought the collective to stages such as Mysteryland, We Are Electric, Woo Hah, Melkweg, Solar Festival, ADE (own event), and many more.
After completing his private study in Audio & Studio Engineering at the Volver Academy in Tilburg in 2013, James began his studies at the Herman Brood Academy in 2015. Here, he connected with rappers who asked him to handle the mixing and mastering of their songs, marking the official start of his career as a mixing and mastering engineer. Following his graduation in 2017, demand and workload increased, quickly adding major Dutch Urban names like Henkie T, Snelle, Young Ellens, Latifah, Kimono, Chivv, Defano, Numidia, and record labels such as Quatro Vision, Trifecta, Avalon Music, and Rotterdam Airlines to his credit list.
Since 2017, James has also been involved in the development of Wisseloord Studio’s House of Music and Wisseloord Publishing in Hilversum. In 2020, James took on the role of both Mastering Engineer at this facility and A&R Manager of the House of Music and Wisseloord Publishing, a collaboration between BMG BNLX and Wisseloord. As the A&R manager of the Wisseloord Publishing, James has been involved with organizing numerous international writing camps and has been responsible to connect both national and international writers.
Noah Smits
Noah is one of the most recognized music marketeers and data analysts of The Netherlands. Working as consultant for numerous artists and labels, Noah is one of the figures of the field that cannot be missed out.
Bastien Corné
Bastien Corné is a musician, composer and music teacher. He obtained a master’s degree in musicology at Paris Sorbonne and a bachelor’s degree in jazz performance at the University of Montreal. He currently performs on stage with artists like Coco Bans or Le Noiseur.
Mahaut Dufour Lamanthe
Mahaut Dufour Lamanthe started out in the music industry in 2016, looking to work alongside artists. She soon founded Loom, offering management services for artists (Sika Deva, BlackDoe, Tices). As a champion of diverse, ambitious projects (English-speaking rappers, producers, an album with K-pop acts), she has all the key tools for creating successful projects. Her next step was evident: embark on freelance project management assignments for independent record labels and studio complexes. She also advocates change for women in the music industry, working actively with the Change de Disque initiative and being part of the 2022 MEWEM promotion.
Rogier Bol
Rogier Bol has more than 15 years experience working in the music industry as marketeer and project manager setting up strategies and release plans for singles, EPs and full length albums locally and internationally, digitally and physically.
Rogier works for and with the majors like Universal Music and indie labels like Fully Charged. He also works for artists from Billie Eilish to Inge van Calkar across all genres. His own company Stroomlijn (Streamline in Dutch) is a service label and marketing and promotion company helping artist to streamline their releases and dreams.
Jim van Kooten
As head of program at venue De Vorstin in Hilversum, Jim is always closely involved with the live music world. He works with upcoming talent as well as the big international names. He developed the upcoming talent platform ‘Patat Met’, a monthly live platform to showcase the best new and upcoming artist from The Netherlands. Besides working as a promoter, Jim is also co-founder of the booking agency ‘Atlas Agency’, a company that books tours for in the BeNeLux for Americana/Roots artists from mostly the USA and UK.
Chiara Gallerani
Chiara Gallerani is Italia Music Export’s project manager. Before working at Italia Music Export she was head of marketing and promotion at Indipendente Concerti (Live Nation Italia) which organized, among many concerts, I-Days Festival. From 2015 to 2016 she was marketing and promotion assistant at Vivo Concerti, a music promoter company in Milan. From 2015 to 2022, she also worked as artists liaison manager at MI AMI Festival, the popular Italian independent music festival held in Milan every year in spring.
From 2020 to 2022 she was the communication manager for EMEE, European Music Exporters Exchange, the network gathering all music export offices in Europe.
Chiara has a bachelor’s degree in Foreign Languages and Literature and a master’s degree in Design and Production of Cultural and Arts events.