Björn Schmelzer is an ethnomusicologist and anthropologist who combines these studies in his research and in his work as an artist. it helps him to unravel the complex web of musical practices and create new ones.

Living in Antwerp (Belgium), he spent some time in Naples and Palermo and worked intensively on the musical traditions and performance practices in sardinia , sicily and the south-italian peninsula. He specialized in the styles and function of ornamentation in mediterranean music and in written classical music as well. Although he was inspired by some ancient and traditional music performers in belgium and in the mediterranean area, life brought him to strike intuitive into other, unknown roads. Beside different (necessary or not) activities and trades, he was also a street-performer and for some time ‘brocanteur'. With graindelavoix his approach to ancient music is that of anachronism and geographical margin with a view to reverse and reinvent images of the (auditive) past. at this moment björn schmelzer is writing a study about dynamics and intensity in late-gothic art.