Bene Gesserit

Bene Gesserit Biography

There are two acts with the name Bene Gesserit, one from Belgium and one from Australia. The name comes from the Frank Herbert's science fiction Dune universe. 1) BeNe GeSSeRiT were an early 80s art/music project from Trazegnies, Belgium. The members were Alain Neffe and Nadine Bal, both of whom have continued to be active in the minimal electronic and experimental scene ever since. Together and apart they have made music under the guises of Human Flesh, Pseudo Code, The Chopstick Sisters, 3pattes, Messy Goes Insane, Human Dance, Cortex, Subject, I Scream, Niala Effen and Japanese Genius. Alain Neffe founded the Insane Music record label, around 1980 and in a self-interview from 1981 had this to say about his music: "Like everybody else, I was interested/influenced by noise, trash sound, very rough and aggressive music. During this period [1974-1978], I used to listen for hours to amplified frequencies found on my short wave radio..." He does not consider the industrial label appropriate for his music, likening industrial bands of the era to shock value circus clowns, and commenting: "I have never been interested in the circus, it does not make me laugh. It just makes me sleep". 2) Bene Gesserit were a hardcore band formed in Sydney, Australia in 2004. The line up consisted of Christopher Hearn, Lawrence Hall and Alex Szorkovsky The band released one live tour CD, a split with Sydney's Brand Disloyalty, and one retrospective hits compilation. The band broke up in 2005, with Chris going on to become Alps, Alex and Lawrence forming Eucalypt.