Bessy Bess

Bessy Bess is one of the pioneer DJ’s of Albania. Born and raised in Tirana, he started listening to music at an early age, influenced by his family of musicians. He grew up in the dark period of communism when Jazz, Blues, Rock'n'Roll and most of western music was banned by law. Understanding both feeling and message that music releases into our ears was made possible for him most of all through his father and his fathers old collection of multi ethnic illegal music, obtained through the construction of hidden antennas under the roof and recordings of various western radio stations. Bess as a child is remembered as the one who used to put his head on a 2 watt speaker, whenever the base lines of a tune like Caldonia from Louis Jordan popped up in his fathers old KB100. Out of passion for music and the eventual urge to mix sounds together came up, he grew up to built a small fade-in/fade-out 4 channel mixer at the age of only 11 years old.
In 1995, a new era was floating as the country had just began to give birth to clubs, B.B. started disc jockeying in his hometown, Tirana. He played alongside his older brother Adeejay at a venue called Disco Meteor which had a capacity of 1000 people. Mixing CDs and tapes Vinyl was beyond luxury... While the rapid development of the capital city and society brought freedom to people and encouragement for a new lifestyle, clubs were found opened from 10am to 2pm followed by 8pm ongoing to 6am. Eventually, the absence of any law regulating nightlife brought down a lot of parties into town. During the 90’s, adolescents were going to Discos in the morning and adults at night!
The millennium caught up with him in London. Influenced by one of the world’s best party-city, he decided to study Sound Engineering developing his knowledge from within the music industry. Along the way, he met with some of London’s most glamorous promoters, as they recognized his passion for music and his unique developed style in Disc Jockeying.
His DJ skills are described as spontaneous orchestrations fueled by the nuances of a night venue and crowd. The knowledge of complexed rhythms and the way they act in a mix, moreover how they are received by the human ear and body is one o his unique specialities. He is also one of the most unexpected DJ's you'll ever witness behind decks, the modesty and the connection between him and the crowd is described as One. However this releases within him a unique style.
Bess is remembered to have spun amazing deep soulful sets at Londons most prestigious parties and venues, including: Rouge, Funky Buddha, Kingly Club, K-Bar, Opium Lounge, Green Gardens Terrace, China White, Caffé Royal, Café de Paris, Cargo, Trap, Boat Parties by The Thames, SO.UK, Rex Club, Hilton Zeta, Camden Palace, Embassy, The Roof Gardens, KOKO, Tantra, The End, 10 rooms, Atlantic, Capisce, CC Club, Click, Elysium, Eve Club, Border Club, Purple, Pop, Tryst, Raks Club and many more…
The arrival of 2005 meets with Bess back in his home town Tirana, as the rapid growth of the city had continued, Tirana had completely changed. The promised “new lifestyle” had undergone its way and glamour had just started sparkling. The people were listening to reggeaton and super commercialized house. Soulful music and funk seemed nowhere to be found! Looking up old archived music, Bess was reminded of the past rave endless nights that he used to play. This kind of parties were exploding for the first time in 96-97... Out of nostalgia and with a push from “a deep need for change” he managed to build up his new bag of CDs, incorporating a firmer selected electronic touch... He picked up gigs again, by playing at several clubs and festivals in Albania.
2007 flipped over by a 360 degree turn, marked as well by the arrival of his artistic companion Gabrielle Birnholz. With the love for freedom, music and arts, both started organizing the Sessions parties and many other punctual events, lightning usually empty party seasons such as winter in Albania with mad musical feasts, as well as taking part in many festivals.
Bess returned to his underground roots, navigating from psychedelic warm up scenes for DJ pairs and artist exchange to all night long personal funky tech-house minimal parties, along side joined projections of video jockeys, graphic arts, photography, and painting exhibits. Eks Art was the coined name to identify these new activities.
As always with Bess the best and the rest is yet to come. For the past 4 years Bess has been constantly working in music composition, drawing knowledge from the past into a art work of the future, which will soon, be available to the ears of the world!