05/02/2026
Meet Custom Keys finalist Gaël Benyamin - Parisian singer-songwriter, composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist.
A lifelong devotee of the Rhodes sound, Gaël describes the instrument as one of the defining forces that led him to become a musician. As a finalist in Rhodes’ previous competition, Missing Keys, this year’s Custom Keys challenge represents, in his words, “a brand-new chance” - and the possibility of owning “the ultimate musical instrument.”
Gaël’s connection to the Rhodes is deeply physical. When he plays, the instrument evokes “a trance-like, hypnotic feeling… almost like a voodoo possession.” That sense of ritual and rhythm became the conceptual heart of his submission, built around a percussive motif and a hypnotic harmonic shift that mirrors the instrument’s visceral energy, as Gael demonstrates in the clip.
Drawing on his experience composing for television documentaries, Gaël approached the piece with a sharp sensitivity to image and movement. Ringing bells reminiscent of a train conductor’s call signal the arrival of the MK8 Night Train, while a glitch-inflected, syncopated synth line punctuates each Custom Shop design as it flashes across the screen in rapid succession.
Read the full interview, watch Gaël’s Custom Keys submission, and explore his music: https://rhodesmusic.com/custom-keys-challenge-finalist-stories-gael-benyamin/
