Music

Benjamin Efrati is a music producer, performer, singer and composer.

I am a music producer, performer, singer and composer.

Before embracing the tools and methods of electronic music, I focused on crafting melodies with string instruments (bass, elektro-bağlama, bouzouki, oud) and practiced rhythm-oriented improvisation, inspired by Jazz, Funk, Fusion, Progressive Rock, Sound Art and Noise music, as well as musical traditions from around the Mediterranean. At the same period, with the discovery of digital audio workstations (Reason, Live, Reaper), I was able to gain compositional mastery over the music I was making, which led me to explore unusual chord structures and create my very own touch in harmonizing simple melodies.

Feeling the need to compartimentalize my mental activities, I stopped producing music with computers and developed new skills using physical sequencers to write and perform music. In 2022, I started working with archaeologists on the potentialities of using flint tool experimental replicas as lithophones, which I’ve incorporated into a wide range of pieces through performance and sampling. If you’re French, you can listen to a radio piece I wrote on the topic.

Yaba-Daba-Doubs, Back To The Trees Festival, 2023

Most of my time is dedicated to composing original soundtracks for animated shorts, series and experimental feature films such as Amok, an animated short directed by Balazs Turai and produced by Terry Gilliam and Boddah (Hungary) was acclaimed at Annecy’s International Animation Film Festival.

This album showcases singing, elektro-bağlama and heavy analog bass. For writing the film, Balazs Turai was inpsired by the very first demo songs I released as Gnozo circa 2017. I thus re-wrote and entirely re-recorded the tracks so as to fit the needs of the narration perfectly. Electronic music producer Froe Char was appointed musical producer for the occasion, an collaboration which opened the doors of new artistic projects such as Cheikh Efrita and concept-album Iphigénie.

Gear-porn corner : the electronic instruments I use for composing are analog synthesizers (Moog Grandmother, Moog Minitaur, Korg MS-20 mini, MAM MB33, Dreadbox Typhon, Moog Werkstatt), digital synthesizers, samplers and sequencers (Synthstrom Audible Deluge, Teenage Engineering EP-133, Elektron Digitakt, Arturia Microfreak).