Biography
About the artist
Michel Banabila, born in 1961 in Amsterdam, is a sound artist, composer, and producer. He has been releasing music since 1983 and has produced musical scores for numerous films, documentaries, theater plays and choreographies. He has worked and performed in the Netherlands, Poland, Lebanon, the UK, South Africa, Russia, Japan, Spain, China, USA, and Belgium.
Music + collaborations
Banabila's work varies from minimal loop-based electronica, fourth world, and neo-classical pieces to drones, experimental electronica and tribal ambient. In addition to acoustic instrumentation, Banabila uses electronics, field recordings, and snippets from radio, TV and the internet. He has collaborated with a wide variety of artists, including Alex Haas, Anton Goudsmit, Beppe Costa, Cengiz Arslanpay, Cloud Ensemble, Eric Vloeimans, Erkan Oğur, Gareth Davis, Hanyo van Oosterom, Holger Czukay, Joshua Samson, Maarten Vos, Machinefabriek, Maryana Golovchenko, Mehmet Polat, Mete Erker, Oene van Geel, Peter Hollo, Pierre Bastien, Radboud Mens, Salar Asid, Sandhya Sanjana, Scanner, Willem Cramer, Yaşar Saka, Zenial, among others.
Albums
Banabila has recorded many albums, including VoizNoiz (2000) and Spherics (2001), originally released by Steamin' Soundworks (NL). These albums were internationally licensed to Tone Casualties (USA) and Pork Recordings (UK). BBC legend John Peel was the first to play music from VoizNoiz on his show. Moreover, Banabila's tracks appeared in a mix by Osymyso (4AM Eternal - MixMag Magazine) and vinyl followed (Pork 081). In 2001 Banabila joined Holger Czukay's Linear City collaboration project, on the track Ten Steps To Heaven. Furthermore, his collaboration on VoizNoiz 3 (Challenge Records) with trumpet player Eric Vloeimans received the Edison Jazz Award in 2003. In 2004, the duo were also nominated for a Golden Calf for Petersburg, Places and Paintings, a film by Ben van Lieshout.
In 2005 Banabila founded his own independent label, Tapu Records. In 2008, Steamin' Soundworks released a 2CD compilation album, Precious Images, that featured 10 years of Banabila's recordings. For the same publisher, Banabila was the producer and co-writer of the album Arhil, by Ali Bahia El Idrissi. The first track of this album was used for the Putumayo sampler Sahara Lounge.
Banabila was also awarded with a composition stipend for the period of 2012-2013 by FPK, the Dutch Performing Arts Fund. His track E.T. was used in Boarding Pass, a mix by French renowned composer / producer Rone for Tsugi Magazine #66 in 2013. In 2021, a remastered version of the track was added to the compilation LP And Felt Like... Later Gaspar Claus recorded the piece for his LP Tancade (E.T. Extra Terre Version) on cello.
Banabila recorded six albums with electronica wizard Rutger Zuydervelt aka Machinefabriek (Banabila & Machinefabriek / Travelog / Error Log / Macrocosms / Entropia / A Looming Presence) and three albums with viola virtuoso Oene van Geel (Music for viola and electronics part I / part II / Live at Rewire - Whales Calling). Since 2014 he has experimented with a small modular set for his Feedback + Modular + Radiowaves series.
In 2016–2017, three reissues with recordings from the 1980s came out:
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Chi – The Original Recordings (ambient) by Astral Industries (UK),
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Things Popping Up From the Past (early works) by Bureau B / Tapete Records (DE),
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Trespassing (2LP vinyl; a reissue of his first LP Marilli from 1983 and a partly new compilation) by Séance Centre (CA).
In 2018, Steamin' Soundworks reissued VoizNoiz part 1 as a 2LP vinyl album, including a new exclusive remix by Michel Banabila & Oene van Geel. In 2019 Banabila self-released Uprooted, new work with contributions by Peter Hollo (cello), Gareth Davis (bass clarinet), Oene van Geel (viola & stroh violin), Gulli Gudmundsson (bass & ebow), Alex Haas (synth & electronics), and Stijn Hüwels (guitar & electronics). With Alex Haas he recorded The Woods, featuring Bill Laswell. Michel Banabila also performed on Sun Comes Out from Lithium (Sonicontinuum / 2020) by Alex Haas.
In 2020 Banabila collaborated on the EP The Spaces You Hold with British composer and sound artist Robin Rimbaud. In the same year, 7K! released Cassina, a new single by Michel Banabila & Machinefabriek, for the compilation Ambient Layers. In 2021 Bureau B released a new compilation featuring more recent works by Banabila: Wah-Wah Whispers. In December 2021, Banabila made his debut on the Amsterdam-based Knekelhuis label, with his celebrated LP Echo Transformations. In 2023, Pingipung released Baba Soirée, an album showcasing his collaborations with Pierre Bastien. In June 2024 Knekelhuis released Banabila's second LP for the label; Unspeakable Visions. In May 2025, Pingipung released his second LP with Pierre Bastien: Nuits Sans Nuit. Also in 2025, Glasgow based Invisible Inc Records released Resonance: 10 Years Of Vibrational Sounds From The Heart Of Invisible Inc, a compilation featuring artists like Michal Turtle, David van Tieghem, and many others, including a track by Banabila: Memories Of The Forest.
Other projects
Besides making albums, Banabila works with theater, dance and visual art on more conceptual artistic projects. Banabila worked on various films, videos and video installations with video artists Geert Mul, Olga Mink, Nan Wang, and photographer Gerco de Ruijter. With Geert Mul he had an audiovisual live set; Big Data Poetry, which they performed in venues like The Barbican (London) during the Logan Symposium 2014, Yukunkun (Beirut) with vocalist Anas Maghrebi during the Global Week For Syria 2015, and TENT (Rotterdam) during Sound Spectrums 2012.
With Olga Mink he performed at the LUX Festival (Sevilla), the VAD Festival (Girona) and the State Of The Image Festival (Arnhem) in 2006. For Gerco de Ruijter he did sound design for several stop-motion animations and video installations, like the critically acclaimed Crops, shown in the Hirshhorn Museum (including a live performance by Banabila - Washington DC, 2013) and Ringdijk at Panorama Mesdag (The Hague / 2016). Nan Wang's video for Banabila's A Sense Of Place (with Oene van Geel) was shown at NFF (Netherlands Film Festival). And in 2019 Banabila scored Nan Wang's Pareidolia, that was shown in 2019 at IFFR (International Film Festival Rotterdam).
Dance
In the summer of 2010, Michel Banabila performed live with Conny Janssen Danst during a three-week open-air event, Common Ground, on the roof of De Hofbogen in the centre of Rotterdam. Each week, Banabila had a guest improviser: Mete Erker, Daniella Bernoulli, and Corrie van Binsbergen. In 2011, he toured the Netherlands with Corrie van Binsbergen and Conny Janssen Danst in Life-Live! to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Conny Janssen Danst. In 2017 Michel Banabila & Maarten Vos toured 4 months The Netherlands with Home, a critically acclaimed dance performance by Conny Janssen Danst with live music.
In May 2018, San Francisco Ballet used Banabila's remixed version of Jump Cuts in Guernica, a choreography by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa. In 2019, Banabila was commissioned by Philadelphia Ballet to compose new work for Yin Yue and commissioned by Patrick O' Brien to compose work for Patrick O'Brien Collective, with help from CUNY Dance. In 2023, Banabila was commissioned by BalletMet to score a choreography by Yin Yue (Timeless Tide), which premiered at Asian Voices and by YYDC to score a choreography by Yin Yue (Somewhere), which premiered at New York Live Arts (2024).
