Michel Banabila

Photo by Stephan C. Kaffa

In his creative work Michel Banabila uses almost any sound source possible — his toolkit includes synthesizers, field recordings, voices (his own as well as his friends’), stompboxes, WebSDRs, improvisation sessions, found objects, acoustic instruments, films, you name it. His live setup is also sophisticated and consists of many various devices (a modular synthesizer, among other things).

“I love collaborations, and, I guess, the good thing about performing live is a certain wild energy that could grow between people playing, improvising or mixing, something that happens in the moment, something uncontrollable. I like it when you can play in a place where the audience accepts mistakes, where exploring ideas is the priority, where it is important to try something new, rather than deliver a professional entertainment.”

It is obvious that Michel Banabila enjoys the process—ever since he started to play piano at the age of seven. That was just the early beginning and with the course of time his instrumentarium, of course, has complexified: from the Hohner Pianet, to Fender Rhodes, to computers, to HD audio recorders, and so on. What we really appreciate is that Michel holds the balance of ever-growing possibilities wisely, which he formulated as follows:

“As these days recording software has endless possibilities, I like to limit myself to some sort of a concept, an idea, or simply a restriction in the choice of instruments or sounds.”

Cheers to that, ladies and gentlemen!