Benin International Musical (BIM) is a collective that aims to highlight voodoo culture and make the music of Benin better known to the world. It crystallizes the bubbling creativity of the West African country’s music scene with the wealth of its history and the music of its ancestors.

Known historically as the former kingdom of Dahomey, Benin is home to voodoo convents where 19th-century instruments and rhythms were created that indirectly gave birth to current musical forms (such as blues, jazz, rock, and rap). To revive the melodies of the ancient peoples of Dahomey, Hervé Riesen (Radio France) joined forces with French composer and producer Jérôme Ettinger. From convents to evangelical churches to clubs in Cotonou, they scoured Benin to put together a group representative of the country’s new musical generation. After several months of auditions in 2016, they recruited performers from backgrounds in gospel as well as hip-hop and traditional song.

The seven members of BIM received support from the Institut français in Cotonou, which provided them space for two years to record their first album, BIM#1, released in early 2019. In a musical journey from Ouidah—the main port in the slave trade in the 19th century—to the cotton fields of the American South, voodoo rhythms, traditional songs, and electric melodies are blended in a global music approach, consisting of an explosive mix of Afrobeat, trip-hop, rock, and electro, crossed with swing and gospel accents.