The Georgian musician experimenting with a hand-made guitar prefers to conceal his real name, and since 2005 has been known under his stage nickname – BekBekson.
His guitar, which he has made with his own hands, also bears the name Bekson. Prior to our meeting, I listened to five songs of his on MySpace many times and watched a video on YouTube, but as it turned out, it only gave me a faint idea of what BekBekson really does on stage.
The visit to his live performance at the art club 44 last week made the picture more complete. Labeled by his fans a Georgian Jimi Hendrix, BekBekson did all kinds of tricks with his guitar – he played it with a bow instrument, screwdriver, and even helped himself with his mouth – plugging the strings, breathing on them and whatnot.
Naturally the music he produced was not the regular guitar sounds we are used to hearing. One moment I heard violin, another – bagpipes, flute and even the whole orchestra, as well as the sounds of birds singing or dolphins “talking.” Bekbekson’s style is a combination of academic, rock, psychedelic, ethno, avant-garde, and experimental trends mixed by improvisation. “Every concert is unique. The leitmotif remains the same, but the composition as a whole usually varies. It all depends on the audience,” BekBekson remarked, with his eyes shining. For him, a performance is a dialogue with the audience on an inner energy level and the Ukrainian audience, according to him, readily sends waves of his energy back to the stage.
An emotional audience and good – or at least better than in Georgia – conditions for music creativity made him stay in Ukraine for a year already and he is thinking of living here even longer. The first eight months Bek spent in Lviv, where he got acquainted with numerous musicians, among whom he highly praised jazz performer Yuriy Yaremchuk. Since both Georgia and Ukraine were parts of the Soviet Union once, there are many similarities in the mentalities and ways of living. Thus for Bek, it was not that difficult to adapt to local culture. Among the main difficulties, except colder weather conditions, he named the lack of native dishes in eateries, taking into account that it is not generally accepted in Georgia that men cook by themselves. Another problem is connected with finding lodging: “When I inquire about renting a flat and mention that I’m Georgian, the host puts down the receiver. It’s strange. If it had happened in Russia, I would have understood the reason,” Bek complained in bewilderment.
During the year spent in Ukraine, BekBekson has led an active artistic life. He took part in the Jazz Bezz festival in Lviv, wrote music for designer Oksana Karavanska’s show at the 22nd Ukrainian Fashion Week, performed at Dodge jazz festival in Donetsk and the Koktebel Jazz Festival in Crimea.
Koktebel itself, as Bek noted, reminded him of Batumi, where he was born, lived and studied in the Music Academy. -Though, as he recalled with regret, the institution didn’t teach him what he really wanted – jazz or psychedelic music. He had to dig into everything by himself, creating his personal music style in the process: “the most important thing for an artist,” he emphasized. In addition to classic guitar – his main subject – Bek tried drums, the trumpet and harmonica. Besides arts, he also took interest in natural sciences and electronics, which I find quite unusual – musicians and artists are often more keen in the humanitaries. “I had a small laboratory of my own, where I conducted chemical and physics experiments; I always liked to make different electronic schemes, constructed toys and various devices,” Bek shared with enthusiasm.
Such interest towards electronics, as well as his father’s experience, who made his first a guitar as a teenager, inspired BekBekson. He created his own guitar, which would produce all possible and impossible sounds and noises.
According to Bek, his father heads the list of most vivid influences in his life. The rest is constituted by the music of Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, John Zorn, the Beatles, Bach, Mozart, Vivaldi, Tom Waits, Marcus Miller, George Benson, Joe Satriani, Stive Vai, Radiohead, etc.
In Batumi, Bek performed with a set of underground music bands and after taking everything he possibly could from the city’s creative environment, left for Tbilisi, where he lived for three years to move farther – to Ukraine. “I like the active rhythm of Kyiv. In Georgia, there is a three-million population – the cities suit fine for writing music, but not performing it. Besides, Georgian people now are more interested in politics then in art,” noted Bek with a sigh of nostalgia. I was truly stunned when I learned that he liked the atmosphere of Moscow (usually people become depressed by its frantic rhythm on the fourth day already), but Bek needs everything to whirl around all the time.
Unfortunately, he doesn’t have any studio records. By now everything he recorded comprises four non-official albums: “Aura” (2006), “Kulinari” (2007), “Ultrasonic” (2007) and “Asea Sool” (2007), the latter recorded with his sister on vocals. “Many people inquire about my albums, so I’m already thinking about making an official release,” Bek shared. Among his plans is also a gradual integration to the Western music niche, where there are more musicians that perform experimental music and a wider audience that is interested in it.
