Biography
Bergsonist serves as the working alias for Selwa Abd, the producer, DJ, experimental musician, and multi-disciplinary artist born in Morocco and now based in New York. She maintains a steady pace of creation that has yielded multiple albums alongside dozens of EPs, spanning gritty industrial techno laced with Middle Eastern rhythms and samples as well as abstract sound design tailored for art installations. Abd established the artistic platform Bizaarbazaar, belonged to the Discwoman collective, and has maintained a monthly NTS Radio program since 2018. Beyond her many self-released works, she has placed recordings with imprints such as Clan Destine, home to 2017’s From Dualism to Monism, and Optimo Music, which issued 2020’s Middle Ouest. During 2024 she delivered the experimental album As If Reality, assembled during her artist residency at ISSUE Project Room, together with the more techno-focused full-length Maghreb.
Abd launched Bizaarbazaar as a blog in 2010 while still a teenager in Casablanca. She relocated to New York shortly afterward to pursue graphic design studies and develop a personal artistic voice. Daily music-making with whatever gear she could obtain led her to adopt the name Bergsonist, drawn from Gilles Deleuze’s writings on Henri-Louis Bergson and the centrality of intuition in creativity. Her first live appearance took place in 2015, followed by a 2016 split EP with Isabella on Börft Records. The 2017 cassettes Bergsonism on TRAM Planet and From Dualism to Monism on Clan Destine appeared that year, while Styles Upon Styles put out the EP Mutation. Guest mixes continued on Bizaarbazaar as it shifted into a publishing project, and the monthly NTS Radio show began in 2018. Further releases arrived via Where to Now and Hypercolour, culminating in Optimo Music’s well-received full-length Middle Ouest in 2020. Independent EPs such as Toxic Materialism and Fasting followed, along with the 2023 album Bergsonist. The year 2024 also saw the EPs Avant and Exploitation Occident alongside As If Reality, the experimental set written for her 2022 residency at New York’s ISSUE Project Room, and the beat-driven Maghreb.
Abd launched Bizaarbazaar as a blog in 2010 while still a teenager in Casablanca. She relocated to New York shortly afterward to pursue graphic design studies and develop a personal artistic voice. Daily music-making with whatever gear she could obtain led her to adopt the name Bergsonist, drawn from Gilles Deleuze’s writings on Henri-Louis Bergson and the centrality of intuition in creativity. Her first live appearance took place in 2015, followed by a 2016 split EP with Isabella on Börft Records. The 2017 cassettes Bergsonism on TRAM Planet and From Dualism to Monism on Clan Destine appeared that year, while Styles Upon Styles put out the EP Mutation. Guest mixes continued on Bizaarbazaar as it shifted into a publishing project, and the monthly NTS Radio show began in 2018. Further releases arrived via Where to Now and Hypercolour, culminating in Optimo Music’s well-received full-length Middle Ouest in 2020. Independent EPs such as Toxic Materialism and Fasting followed, along with the 2023 album Bergsonist. The year 2024 also saw the EPs Avant and Exploitation Occident alongside As If Reality, the experimental set written for her 2022 residency at New York’s ISSUE Project Room, and the beat-driven Maghreb.
Albums
Singles
