Guillaume Rossouw

Guillaume Rossouw morphed into Gil Gap at the onset of receiving publicity from the Punk/New Wave bands he was founder member of during the seventies and eighties in Cape Town. He made original protest music his home and this spawned a number of punk bands such as The Safari Suits and Housewives choice. Having runaway from his familial broedebond privilege and refusing conscription, he adopted an undercover stage name.

Hiding in plain site, his bands played at anti-apartheid gigs performing his surreptitious protest songs live on stage. He moved on whenever a recording contract emerged, to maintain his covert identity. Deciding to return to Johannesburg to provide a more stable base for his young family, he created The Pool Club and The Harbour Cafe with the support of the artistic activist community, hosting bands like The African Jazz Pioneers, Mango Groove, Allen Kwela, Tananas and Live Jimi Presley to name a few. Due to continued harassment from the police and CCB, he disappeared into southern Africa on a personal quest to appreciate nature and jam with anyone open to exchanging musical knowledge. In 2012 he emerged in Johannesburg, once again running live venues and playing in bands performing the songs he had written.
As Covid started to spread, with no gigs or a place to stay, he conceptualised The Gillone Ranger Sunset Trip and hit the road with his cat. He planned to perform in towns and venues across South Africa, while honing his skills for eventual recording . Support for his storytelling music and the socio-political and historical comment gained traction and he did small gigs, sharing the phone recordings with his supporters via Whatsapp.

Guillaume is an experimental guitar player who remains sensitive to the atmosphere, voices and sounds that he encounters on his travels across South Africa.

He is now doing interactive open gigs wherever he can, having found original tea boxes, a box base, original cajon, a vintage homemade guitar along with other stuff to use as instruments.
He is influenced by traditional and indigenous forms of music and is experimenting blending these with classical, flamenco, boeremusiek, mbaqanga. marrabenta, soukous, Balkans, metal, folk, delta blues and remains open to new influences.