benjin at Weirdshire, De Koffie Pot, Hereford.

Date: Tuesday, June 02, 2026

More details

We have received the following information regarding this event;

benjin - 2nd June, De Koffie Pot

We are delighted to be able to bring London based benjin to Weirdshire. He’s coming because we saw him playing at the Horse Hospital, in Bloomsbury, and we were blown away.

What to tell you about him?

He’s based in London, and he’s a multi-instrumentalist, storyteller, and composer who blends folk, jazz, and classical music with field recordings. He was formerly principal musician at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.

He is a highly accomplished player of the nyckelharpa (Swedish keyed fiddle) and blends field recordings, story telling and samples into his performances.

The nyckelharpa is a bowed instrument with three melody strings, one drone and twelve sympathetic strings (which give it its unique ethereal sound). The left hand operates three (or four) separate rows of keys which then press directly onto the strings and change the notes. This keyed mechanism means that all ornamentation on the ‘harpa’ is without vibrato and imbued with a distinct percussive aesthetic. Over the last two centuries, the nyckelharpa has been primarily upheld as the national instrument of Sweden where it is generally played in a variety of folk-dance music contexts. However, traces of premodern iterations of the keyed fiddle can be found across Europe.

Here’s a full performance with cello and nyckelharpa - maybe jump in at about 1hr…. for this performance benjin isn’t using samples but that’s likely to be part of his performance for Weirdshire:
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9fx1m0

Tickets;
https://wegottickets.com/f/17068

De Koffie Pot
Left Bank
Bridge Street
Hereford
HR4 9DG

http://www.theleftbankvillage.co.uk/de-koffie-pot

01432353552