Benguela was formed and found it’s direction by default. Guitarist Alex Bozas needed some back up for a gig at the folk club and managed to convince drummer Ross Campbell and double bassist Brydon Bolton to join him. What happened that evening was largely spur of the moment creation around a few loose ideas due to lack of rehearsal time. Twelve years down the line they’re still improvising every set, feeding off the audiences energies and evolving spontaneously as they themselves feel the way.

“People think of improvised music as Jazz because it has been marketed as Jazz. A lot of performers you can’t classify get put into Jazz, but Jazz has a style, rules and common practices, and Jazz musicians improvise within those boundaries. Improvised music - true improvised music goes beyond that. It has no preordained language. It entirely creates it’s own form and genre. It just creates, which is beautiful. What’s interesting about an improvising band is that everyone in it is changing all the time, listening to new music, seeing new things, experiencing new emotions, developing.. so your perspective on life is changing. And because you’re never playing the same chords or singing the same lyrics, you’re never acting : it’s always a true and immediate expression of who you are.”

The name ‘Benguela’ was taken from the cold current running up the West Coast of Southern Africa and reflects both the flowing nature of the music as well as being geographically representative of where the band came together and the climate in which they live.

The band are currently working on their forth full-length album, to be released in early 2010. Their third album - “Sui” was released in July 2003 on the Open Record Label. A double album, one disc features 6 live tracks performed in Cape Town’s Sui Studios in front of a small audience, and a second disc features remixes by local and international artists such as Burnt Friedman & The New Dub Players, Felix Laband, Goodmorningboy, Paul Riekert and Captain Asthma. Their two previous albums, “Sputnik” (1998) and “Digital Inability” (2001 - Rhythm Records), are both live recordings captured at various venues around Cape Town and Namibia.

The band has played most of the festivals around the country including the North Sea Jazz Festival ‘03, Oppikoppi ‘98 & ‘01, Grahamstown ’99 & 05, Splashy Fen, Up The Creek and appear on five compilations / collaborations, including both Breyten Breytenbach CD’s - “Lady One”, “Mondmusiek”, Koos Kombuis’ “Equilibrium”, and an album with Tony Cox titled “Blue Anthem” which won a SAMA award for Best Instrumental Album 2008.

BRYDON BOLTON (Double Bass) has recorded and performed with many projects including Hilton Schilder, Robbie Jansen, Bomvu, Fred Kuit & Kopano, Blacky Swart, Frank Mallows (Adamastor), Chris Letcher & Matthew v.d. Want, Niklas Zimmer, ‘ELX’ with the late great trumpeter Alex Van Heerden and together with Derek Gripper as the Sagtevlei trio, has scored the music for Jackie Job’s dance “Spirit” which toured to Dusseldorf and more recently recorded with his own Brydon Bolton Trio and the critically acclaimed Acoustic Knot with Mark Fransman. He also teaches double bass at the Beau Soleil music center.

ALEX BOZAS (Guitar), a professional photographer by trade has been in and out of the music scene around South Africa for many years. Starting with the Mike Smith band in Durban in the late eighties, The Zap Dragons in Cape Town around ‘94 who recorded a single “hard and heavy” and shot a video for it’s release. The Dynamics around ‘95 who also recorded an album “Organic” and more recently with Mark Harris performing as ‘Cool Bananas’. Alex also performed in and created the soundscapes for Jackie Job’s dance production “Daai ZA Lady”.

ROSS CAMPBELL (Drums) has been recording and touring with bands since the late 80’s. Celtic Rumours, Landscape Prayers, Urban Creep, Fetish have all released critically acclaimed albums, three of them nominated for SAMA awards. He’s worked for Sheer Sound Record Company as their Cape Town branch manager and also Kurse Music Distribution as their local music developer. He has since set up his own record label under the name ‘Open Record’ which has released six artist albums to date. Ross has also coordinated two releases for Fresh Music, and an album of unreleased Fetish tracks for Just Music. He currently plays drums with Farryl Purkiss and The Simon Van Gend Band.

www.myspace.com/benguelacapetown www.benguela.co.za ROSS CAMPBELL : 083 709 0496 iliketea@iafrica.com

PRESS QUOTES : Benguela : Sui/Chopsui (Open Record) “The latest from these Capetonian rhythm rebels is a humdinger, a smorgasbord of beats, riffs, intense grooves, melodic signatures and musical textures, all carefully captured on one of the most atmospheric albums of the year.” - Pretoria News review by Craig Canavan

“Benguela’s sound is an atmospheric, uncompromisingly adventurous fusion of constantly shifting elements..”. “Allow Digital Inability to work it’s magic, and you won’t be able to get enough.” - James Garner (Big Issue) 8/10

“Spine chilling. The combined forces of the Benguela threesome create heart-core, deep listening music that bestows the ultimate respect on the listener by allowing them to wander freely through the sound field without prescribing a melody or beat to them.” “Digital Inability is a victory of improvisation and experimentation.” - James Webb (SL magazine) 5/5