Author and composer, Benjemy was born in 1989 in Tunis.
Voted best Dj in Tunisia by People's Beats magazine in 2017 and 2018,
his style handles percussive and melodious electronic music, mixing traditional instruments and Tunisian Sufis (Bendir, Mezwed, etc.) with an incisive and uncompromising electronic sound.
Benjemy is also a doctoral student in language and literature specializing in Antonin Artaud; French theater theorist, writer and actor.
After a first album, "Incipit", produced in 2020, Benjemy embarked on a performative experience, setting up lives combining music and literature. His first show was titled "En Chair et en sons" and it was produced in La Rochelle, France, between the Intermondes center and La Sirène.
P R O J E C T S
نيران صديقة
SUEURS CHAUDES
SINOUJ
EN CHAIR ET EN SONS
SIN'
INCIPIT
SINOUJ / سينوج
“Sinouj“ is a live project that proposes an immersion in the roots of popular Tunisian music.
This is an attempt to restore a heritage, often stigmatised, by giving it a more modern aspect.
Originally designed as a solo performance, the project migrates to a group format, by inviting singers and musicians.
The project is intended to be hybrid, combining Tunisian percussions (Tbal, Bendir, Doff), Tunisian mezoued, piano, and analog machines.
Popular poetry finds its place, in song chaabi and sufi.
SIN / سين
SIN’ : Sin is a continuation of the Sinouj’ project but adapted to clubbing where the electronic composition that was subtle in Sinouj here takes up more space with dancefloor rhythms.
In this case the electronics composition is placed in the foreground, accompanied by singers (chaabi and Sufi) and musicians (mezoued and percussions).
Sueurs chaudes /نيران صديقة
SUEURS CHAUDES : "Sueurs Chaudes" is second opus of Benjemy, is an album of seven tracks alternating between electronic sounds, tunisian percussions and poetry. conceived as an odyssey, this album tries to cross genres and styles while drawing from traditional and chaabi sounds and from acoustic to electronic.
the album mixes strings and analogical basses with poetic readings and leaves in crescendo, from a soft and soaring music to more dancing and percussive spectres.
Stream on Spotify : https://open.spotify.com/album/0rO4mOD5g2hzdMx2YNOXkL
En chair et en sons :
« Là où d'autres proposent des oeuvres je ne prétends pas autre chose que de montrer mon esprit.
La vie est de brûler de questions. Je ne conçois pas d’oeuvres comme détachée de la vie. » (“Where others propose works I do not claim anything other than to show my mind. Life is burning questions. I don’t see works as detached from life.“) wrote Antonin Artaud.
this is how the piece is conceived, as an ambulation in the spirit of Antonin Artaud. Tempting to bring into sound and light, snatches of texts, always fragmented, in the image of his writings.
The journey is segmented into three distinct parts accounting for the author’s dementia in perpetual mutation.
The first part is devoted on the young years of Artaud, those that precede his internment in psychiatric asylum, strewn with readings of excerpt of "l'Ombilic des limbes" and "Pèse-Nerfs" (Author’s first collection of poetry).
The second part, is based essentially on the "Cahiers de Rodez", realized during his internment. Hundreds pages written under the effects of electroshocks. Vociferations and always incomplete rebus, a cry of revolt launched as a SOS.
The third part is bearer of lucidity, by diving into one of Artaud’s last works, "Van Gogh ou le suicidé de la société" ("Van Gogh or the suicided of society.“), proposed as the will of an author wearing madness, as the fruit of misunderstood and illustrious genius. Madness as an inexhaustible source of creation.
"En chair et en son" is a performance, it is a literary concert mixing analog machines, piano and readings, tempting to restore the voice of Antonin Artaud.
incipit :
Incipit is an album of 8 tracks, born during 2020.
3 instrumental pieces and 5 pieces in collaboration with singers, rappers and musicians from different backgrounds: Dorsaf Hamdani, Ramy Zoghlami, Kaso, Nejla Belhaj and Soudeni.
Due to the lockdown, the recording sessions were performed remotely.
The sound oscillates between analog machines, trip-hop sound, acoustic instruments, Tunisian percussions and texts written in four languages:
Arabic, French, English, and Tunisian dialect.
The themes addressed orbit around acceptation, the right to the difference, but also the relationship between modern man and the ever-changing world.
نيران صديقة :
يُعتبر عرض نيران صديقة ملحمة سمعية بصرية، وهو يروي الرحلة الشعرية للروح الهائمة التي ابتليت بالذكريات. بين الرسوم المتحركة والأداء الموسيقي والأدبي، يأخذنا بنجامي في رحلة بالتناوب بين الأجواء الكهربائية الصاخبة والمقطوعات البطيئة الهادئة رفقة هيام غطاس على الكمنجة ويوسف سلطانة على الطبول وأمين صميدة على آلة التشيلو و هيثم الحذيري في الغناء.
"NIRAN SADIKA" is a live performance conceived as an audio-visual odyssey. The show relates the poetic journey of a wandering soul, consumed by reminiscences.
Between animated film and musical and literary performance, Benjemy carries us away on a spree alternating noisy electric atmospheres and aerial and latent pieces.
All accompanied by Houyem Ghattas on violin, Youssef Soltana on drums and Amine Smida on cello and Haythem Hadhiri on vocals.