Walid Ben Selim / Here And Now

Every time I meet you at my concerts, you ask me if I've recorded this album - a journey where ancient Sufi poetry meets contemporary melodies. Today, I'm delighted to present Here and Now, an ode that celebrates Love, illuminating timeless poems through my singing and the harmonies of the harp, an instrument I find still rarely heard in modern recordings. Recorded live at the CityClub in Switzerland, this album is not just a musical work; it is a window onto my soul, where I explore the themes of Love and the spiritual path that resonate through the ages. The exceptional quality of this recording promises not only to please the ears but, I dare hope, to touch hearts too. Here and Now also marks the start of a new adventure - the creation of my own label dedicated to promoting artists who share a passion for the fusion of musical genres and the poetry that guides through love. This label will be a platform for developing talents who aspire to enrich the world with music that lifts the spirit. By supporting this campaign, you're not just funding an album, you're helping to found a unique artistic community. We're also planning exclusive concerts for our label and the creation of a meditative and spiritual playlist to accompany your moments of reflection and inner peace. Join me on this adventure, here and now, where every note played and every verse sung celebrates the unity and wonder of the present moment. W.B.S

Walid Ben Selim Humanist singer and composer with multiple forms, lover of poetry to which he dedicates his artistic career, Walid Ben Selim was born in Casablanca on a September evening in 1984, in the old medina, between the commercial port and the auction. A gifted and impertinent student, he was inspired by the paradoxes of society and insubordination from his childhood. He was raised by his mother, a lawyer committed to social causes and left-wing activist, who was both his reference and his support in his passion for music and who enrolled him at the age of 6 at the Conservatory of Casablanca. He left Morocco in 2002, after having been one of the founders of the "Nayda" movement, to join France where he continued his studies and his passion. In 2010, Walid is hosted by the Gowri Art Institute in Kerala, which invites him for a creative residency under the direction of Sajitha Shankar, it is at this time that he dives back into Arabic poetry, including Abu Al Alaa Al Maari and El Hallaj.
Back in France, he laid the foundations of N3rdistan which, two years later, will be Inouï de Printemps de Bourges and revelation Visa For Music 2015. After more than 200 concerts with N3rdistan, notably at Jazz sous les pommiers, Oslo World Festival, L'boulevard, Timitar, Journées Musicales de Carthage, Beau Regard, Les Déferlantes, Liverpool World Festival, Montreal Arab Festival, Walid returned to the studio to work on new sounds, and notably signed an original creation mixing theater and musical poetry around texts by Mahmoud Darwich. After having composed the music for several short films and the documentary "Women SenseTour", he signed, in 2018, the music for the Moroccan feature film "An Ordinary Emergency" by Mohcine Besri. He has been invited to perform at the Sacred Music Festival in Fez, the Sacred Spirit Festival in Jodhpur (India) and Recbeat in Brazil, and by the Mahmoud Darwich Foundation and the IMA for a tour in the MENA. Walid Ben Selim becomes an associate artist at the Silo and Uni'sons in 2019, with the national stage of Sète and the Opera of Montpellier, he is solicited by the Arabesques Festival to create around the work of Darwich "The dice player" a piece between theater and music, where he writes and conducts for the musicians of the Opera. In 2021, he signed the music of the film "Sidi Valentin" by Hicham Laasri on Netflix, followed by his feature film « Maghribya Harra » in 2022. In October 2022, Walid was invited to the Miami Symphony to open the Oslo World Human Right. In 2023, and The Royal Opera of Belgium asked him to write a new opera « Ali ». Retrenched in a Cathar castle in the Eastern Pyrenees, he installs his sound laboratory, and records his titles, writes his poems, inviting his artistic circle in residence, with poetry as a tuning fork, to create Poetic Spaces where poets, actors and musicians are mixed.