Bergsonist aka Selwa Abd is a New York–based artist and musician originally from Morocco.
She is the founder of Bizaarbazaar, a music platform and publication that publishes podcasts and interviews by DJs and producers from around the world. Under the guise Bergsonist (derived from Deleuze's Bergsonism), she uses a variety of media to investigate social resonance through divergent conceptual aesthetics (minimalism, techno, and music concrete, to name a few). Through her work, she explores notions of identity, memory, and social politics.
In 2017, she started Pick Up The Flow, a resource to promote congregation and exchange between peers. Currently, co-run with Stephen Decker.
In 2019, she co-founded 3afak with DJ Sanna, a collective that aims to empower Arab women’s creative vision in New York.
Words about the album:
Middle Ouest is an ode to my history, present and future self. Like a sonic autobiography, It's the first body of work that realistically depicts my identity. It's a statement towards all the people who tried to put me into a box. I'm not a box but a genre-less ocean. I don't make genres, I just make music I feel making in the moment. It's all about capturing the moment in a given time. If the aesthetic happens to be house or techno then it is. But I'm not a techno artist.. I'm just a free sonic 'voyageur'. I make music as i feel the world; it can be dark, jovial, weird... I mirror the feelings into sonic compositions. However, the only variables that never change in this equation are the message and intention.