. Biography

Lives and works in Paris (FR)

Viktor Benev, born in 1990 in Sofia, is a bulgarian percussion player and composer. Born right after the fall of the Berlin wall and the major political changes in Bulgaria he became part of a generation of musicians exposed to a great variety of musical genres from an early age. His music seeks to incorporate this rich compound of influences. Having a classical and further on, a jazz music education, makes composed music material and improvisation naturally coexist in his compositions. Viktor currently works in the domain of the electroacoustic music. He associates sound design, field recording and computer generated music with live performance.

Viktor is involved in the collaborative Crystal sound project together with the visual artist bilyana furnadzhieva, founded in 2016. Sculptures in porcelain charged with metal oxydes interact with musical ideas to create an immersive audio-visual space. The project creates a common ground for experimentation between various cultures, languages and art forms. Current collaborators include Selma Savolainen (Finland), Artëm Naumenko (Russia), Aïda Nosrat (Iran), Babak Amir Mobasher (Iran), Lea Lu (Switzerland), Axel Rigaud (France), Petko Tanchev (Bulgaria).
The first album of Crystal sound project was released in 2018 and recorded, mixed and mastered by renowned french Victoire de la Musique winner engineer Philippe Teissier du Cros. The music from the album, as well as new material have been presented at numerous important venues, such as the Ancient Roman Theater in Plovdiv, Château de Vincennes, La Musée de Minéralogie Mines ParisTech, La Générale (pour la programmation officielle de la Nuit Blanche 2018 à Paris).

As a percussionist and contemporary music supporter Viktor is part of the Youth Percussion Pool since its foundation in 2009. A percussion ensemble curated by Tatiana Koleva, which has toured across Europe premiering different contemporary music programmes, often written especially for the project. The ensemble has been curated on the Grachten Festival, November Music Festival, Bimhuis, Varna Summer Festival, March Music Days Festival, etc.

In 2019, Viktor has co-founded the label enovae, together with bilyana furnadzhieva. His first solo work - the electronic album "motions in circuits" is the first release under the imprint. The music in the album is entirely carried out by electricity. The "motions in the circuits" of each composition are governed by the composer, thus leaving a human's trace in the megabytes of the digital work. Having the idea that circuit also means an established itinerary in people's every day lives, Viktor hopes to bring motion in the listener's daily routine, proposing him/her a musical background to influence their environmental perception.