Benfay Added by kwab, 8 September 2005

Benjamin Fay grew up in the Swiss town of Olten, where he received an education in itself from listening to the Freejazz records that his father owned. Aged 19, he decided to study the double bass at the College of Music in Berne. In 1999 he met Niels Jensen aka Dialogue, who introduced him to a large variety of electronic music. This resulted in Benjamin’s realisation that, unlike with the bass, he could compose music without needing an ensemble to perform his works. So in order to concentrate fully on the production of electronic music, he started to teach himself the use of sample editors and the art of mastering. In record time the autodidact learned how to control modular software synthesizers such as Reaktor or studio software like Wavelab. His initial forays into composition were tight techno tracks which reminded many people of the famous Kanzleramt sound. With increasing ability, Benjamin started to restructure his typical way of composing songs, so that nowadays, upon hearing his tracks, one might think that his works sound very “clean” and are arranged smoothly; however, the hidden, detailed funk in his songs remain. Particularly as a Live act, Benjamin has attained a very good reputation and has performed in the countries’ largest clubs, such as the “Rohstofflager” and the “Tonimolkerei” in Zürich, as well as the “Reithalle” in Bern where he was resident DJ and the creative mind behind the well-known “Future Sounds of Jazz” series. As a Live act, Benjamin releases a shine in the minimal light of the clubs and makes use of minimalism, surprises, tribing or smooth electronic music and broken beats. Benfay also turns his hand to DJ-ing as one of the pioneers in the field and a Native Instruments beta tester, he mixes on the fly with the use of the M P3? mixer “TRAKTOR” and amongst a broad range of netaudio and his personal favourite club tunes, he plays a lot of thinner material.