Martin Bennett Biography
Synopsis
Well I guess my music life really began at age 24 when I travelled to India and fell in love with Indian music, studied the Sitar and decided to become a professional Sitar player.
I then ended up in Montreal, Canada where I started busking in the metros for the next 3 years, getting booked for events solo and with other world music projects.
Some of the highlights have been playing with a bongo player at a film launch party while having a tight rope walker directly above us! Another time I played with a didgeridoo player and tribal drummers in a floating elevated stage at an Olympic stadium event. Oh yes, I will never forget playing next to a cage of Ostriches while they were serving Ostrich meat at an art launch party.
discovery of trance music
What I learned by playing the Sitar so much was the understanding of trance music. The Sitar works with a layer of 13 sympathetic strings that resonate every time a note is played on the layer above. This extends the note to what seems like an endless resonance. Add to that the overtones created by the lead notes that can bend to a very free floating set of musical frequencies.
With all those musical frequencies resonating in my head, it started to have an effect on me. It managed to bring out the trance side of every instrument I touched, especially the guitar. Somehow my mind demanded it.
electronic music
So when I got into electronic music it was natural for me to create trance and psychodelic sounds. I lost interest in my Sitar and saw it as a stepping stone to other levels of trance which were easier to express though electronic music.
With my world music background, I found myself making dance music blending in world sounds. Thankfully I recorded a whole bunch of Sitar samples which I still sprinkle through some of my tracks today. So it was in 2006 I gave birth to Xnorophis and found pleasure sharing my music on dance floors.