Source: tournsol.net
Hocine Boukella, the future Sidi Bemol, was born in Algiers in 1957. He grew up in the Belcourt district.
In the 80s, he studied biology at the University of Bab Ezouar, while teasing the guitar and the pen. He evolves in the underground scene where the innovative maghrebian music is in gestation. He draws his first comic books, but his drawings were pilloried by an overcautious censor.
In 1985, he arrived in Paris for a PhD in population genetics, but in 1988, after the October protests in Algiers, he decides to leave the world of science to concentrate on art. He publishes press cartoons in various magazines in France and in Algeria. He designs posters and album covers, he participates in exhibitions and does many odd jobs.
With a few hardship fellows, he sets up a rock band “which participates in more building sites than concerts”. He had difficulties with migration documents and went through a tough period of hiding.
In 1997, he created and directed the Association L’Usine in Arcueil, with artist friends, most of them Algerians who had just arrived in France. This collective occupies and manages a building that has been transformed into rehearsal and recording rooms and graphic designers’ workshops. The place quickly became a meeting point for the Algerian scene in Paris, and a laboratory of artistic creation where many Algerian artists matured musical experiences of the 2000’s: Orchestre National de Barbès, Gaâda Diwane de Bechar, Mad in Paris, Raï kum, Thalweg…
In 1998, he finally released his first album: “Cheikh Sidi Bemol”, an inimitable mix of traditional music and electric guitars. He then released an album ” Live à Alger “ recorded at the Bledstock festival, then the albums ” El Bandi “ and ” Gourbi Rock “ which were a great success in Algeria. These first records mark by the originality of a new style, mixing blues, rock and local music (gnawi, chaabi, kabyle, etc.) in a tonic and humorous synthesis.
In 2007, the L’Usine adventure comes to an end and Sidi Bemol devotes himself fully to CSB Productions, a label he created to be free to produce his own music and that of his friends (today this label gathers about ten artists).
A new period begins, one of experimentation in all directions. With the complicity of the Kabyle poet Ameziane Kezzar, Hocine Boukella revisits sailor songs gleaned
from the four corners of the globe to adapt them into Kabyle. Two albums are published, “Izlan Ibahriyen vol. I and II (Chants Marins Kabyles, 1 and 2)”.
In 2010, he returns to the land of Celtic music which he had already explored with Thalweg ten years earlier and which he joyfully mixes with Kabyle, chaâbis and chaouis tunes in an album paying tribute to the three cities that have nourished him culturally: “Paris Alger Bouzeguène”, the third being the city of origin of his parents.
In 2014, he brings together young jazzmen freshly graduated from the CMDL with gypsy musicians from Radjasthan to
record the album “Afya”.
In 2017, he creates at the Antoine Vitez Theatre, a musical tale entitled “L’Odyssée de Fulay”, a show halfway between theatre and concert, directed by Ken Higelin.
Hocine Boukella has never stopped his work as a draftsman. He published several collections of drawings and his works can be seen on his blog: ” Le Zembrek “.
With this tenth album “Chouf !” (Look!), released in August 2020 and dedicated to the “Smile Revolution” and the Algerian youth, Sidi Bemol returns to his first love: traditional rhythms coloured with blues and rock.
Discography :
Cheikh Sidi Bemol, 1998
Live à Alger, 2000
Thalweg, Berbéro celtic, 2001
El Bandi, 2003
Chants Marins Kabyles 1, 2007
Gourbi Rock, 2008
Paris Alger Bouzeguène, 2010
Chants Marins Kabyles 2, 2012
Afya, 2014
L’Odyssée de Fulay, 2017
Chouf !, 2020
Artworks :
Bouquinages, 1995
Uberri, 2012
Wall Day, 2014
No Comment, 2017
Chants Marins Kabyles 1, 2019
Chants Marins Kabyles 2, 2019
