Forward-thinking, politically-charged dance music from NYC’s Bergsonist.

Growing up in Casablanca, Morocco, Selwa Abd was fascinated by the music that surrounded her. “I listened to everything,” she told Scene Noise last year. “My dad used to play soul music like Marvin Gate and Al Green. Meanwhile, in family settings, Arabic music would play endlessly in the background.”

When she was a teenager, Selwa used free software and a cheap keyboard to piece together music on her own, making sounds without being tied down to formula. Later, about a decade ago, she began posting music to SoundCloud, using the Bergsonist moniker. The name references philosopher Bergson’s theories explored by Gilles Deleuze, and this focus on intuition, theory and art underpins Selwa’s creative output.

Exploring notions of identity, memory and social politics, she has released a slew of records, mostly her Bandcamp page, that track through electronic music styles, from techno to music concrete. Most recently she released the acclaimed Middle Ouest full-length Optimo Music, an album that Selwa describes as “a sonic autobiography.” While the record uses techno and house elements, it’s a unique collection of sounds that remains very much in Selwa’s unique sonic universe.

Now based in New York City, Selwa is a vital part of the local underground music scene, co-curating Pick Up The Flow, a collective that organizes radio broadcasts, workshops, swap meets and other activities. She also hosts a monthly radio show on NTS Radio, where she promotes underground music from across her scene and beyond.

Her FACT mix is just as free as her recordings, as Selwa jumps fluidly from the sizzling minimal techno of Roman Flügel to DJ Plead’s fractured club music, through Burna Boy and Snoop Dogg edits into recordings of the Master Musicians of Joujouka, ending on a special dedication to US senator Bernie Sanders.

Tracklist:

Lucas Ragzallah – ‘Sunrise’
Roman Flügel – ‘Prinzessin X’
Roman Flügel – ‘Silicon D Rift’
Dbh – ‘Slapfrussel’
DJ Plead – ‘BMW ASWAD’
Pure Science – ‘Say It’
Burna Boy – ‘Ye’ (jeftuz Remix)
Enrico Mantin- ‘Dont Think About it’
Rick Aade – ‘Bleach’
HiFi Mike – ‘Stereo Flavas’ ( Jamie Lewis Dub mix)
Louie Vega Feat Jazzie B – ‘A New Day’ (Jazzie B Spirit Mix)
Afromedusa – ‘Pasilda’
Black Loops – ‘Higher’
King Doudou – ‘Perreo Android’
Jock Club – ‘Sexual Eruption’ (Jock Club Vip remix)
Arafa Mohammad – ‘Solo percussion’
Illegal Minds (Greg Z) – ‘Earl’
Recording from The Masters of Jakjouka
Robot Radif
Fatima Al Qadiri feat Naygow – ‘Galby’
DJ XNX – ‘Freek It All Night Rework’
Peven Everett – ‘Hooked on You’
The Modern Institute – ‘200 edit’
Bergsonist – ‘Vote Bernie’

Listen next: FACT mix 748 – Kush Jones