GIDI
Gidi Farhi is an Israeli-born string instrumentalist, composer, and vocalist whose work bridges jazz tradition and experimental exploration. With a deep-rooted passion for creating musical landscapes that are both harmonious and adventurous, Gidi's approach blends genres, cultures, and disciplines into compositions that are as evocative as they are boundary-defying.
His journey with music began at the age of 12, when he picked up the classical guitar, followed shortly by the bass. He went on to study double bass at the Rubin Academy of Music and Dance in Jerusalem, laying a strong foundation in jazz performance. Drawn to the unfamiliar and the transformative, Gidi continued his musical education in Varanasi, India, where he studied the sitar and immersed himself in the textures of Indian classical music.
In 2006, Gidi relocated to Berlin, a city whose openness to experimentation and cross-cultural exchange continues to inspire his work. Over the years, he has been active across a wide variety of musical scenes. Performing as a bassist, he has played with groups such as the Adriano Celentano Gebäckorchester (ACGO), The Hunters, Wabash, Clark Nova Five, and the Minimal Utopia Orkestra. He also contributed to Rasha Nahas’ debut album and performed on the subsequent tour.
In recent years Gidi shifted his focus toward live-composition, improvisational work and interdisciplinary collaboration with movement and poetry- exploring what he describes as the “inner dance” within music.
Gidi is a co-founder and has been a core member of several ensembles:
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Gidi & Mati: A current collaboration with poet Mati Shmuelof, blending contemporary Hebrew poetry with acoustic songwriting.
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Genes: A live-composing trio whose debut album, Presents of Presence, was released in 2020.
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Berliner Orient Ensemble: A group dedicated to classical Syrian and Middle Eastern music, alongside traditional Jewish Ladino music from Turkey.
In 2022, Gidi released "Hey Yaldati", a collaborative album created with guitarist and composer Nishad Pandey.
In Feb 2026, Gidi released the album "The Strangers Are The Friends" by Gidi & Mati, where he is playing and singing his compositions to Mati Shemoelof's poems. Furthermore he is working on a solo album with compilation of original songs.
He is also a founding member of Hochspannung Studios, a Berlin-based music production collective he co-established with Alexander Folonari and Nishad Pandey. Together, they support a growing community of artists exploring sound, storytelling, and sonic experimentation.
Through all his projects, Gidi remains committed to the power of music as a journey - an emotional, intuitive experience that invites listeners to travel not just through sound, but through the inner landscapes it reveals.
Photo Credit: Yasmin Beyaz