Bendik Giske sees the limit as the starting line.
Bendik blends jazz and electronic music with circular breathing, movement, and strategically placed mics to create intensely physical and evocative compositions supported by the versatility of his reed.
Bendik’s Reed:
Select Jazz Tenor Saxophone 2M
Bendik says, “I think I like for the reed to have a certain element of wildness to it. It really is the bridge between the organic body and the inorganic metal. It carries a lot of identity.”
“I started using multiple—more than four—mics on the saxophone, which is more than the human ear. So you start creating impossible listening positions, ways of experiencing the instrument that isn't accessible with two ears only.”
About Bendik Giske
Bendik Giske is a Norwegian saxophonist and performance artist living in Berlin. Born in Oslo and raised between Norway and Bali, he draws on an eclectic mix of jazz, electronic music, and Scandinavian and Balinese traditions. Giske is known for an intensely physical, vulnerable approach to the instrument, using circular breathing to create continuous, hypnotic, and deeply sensual music. Rather than relying on looping or layering, he replicates the building blocks of electronic and club music live, in single takes, letting the human imperfections come through. His debut album Surrender (2019, Smalltown Supersound), an ode to queer nightlife inspired by Berlin's club scene, was followed by Cracks (2021), the self-titled Bendik Giske (2023), and Remixed (2025). A fluid collaborator across genre and medium, he has worked with Beatrice Dillon, Caterina Barbieri, Sam Barker, and filmmaker Wu Tsang, and was named Artist of the Year at the German Jazz Prize in 2024.
