A Buddhist monk I met during my international studies in China in the late 1980s told me about the significance of the number 9. He said that 9 is a highly spiritual number, a symbol of transition and transformation through inner work or through learning from the material realm. It is often associated with the closing of a cycle, the completion of a pattern, or the culmination of repeated actions.
The well-loved musical group Ben and Ben has reached its ninth year in the business, where it has progressed from a promising Filipino folk-pop collective into one of the country’s most accomplished musical acts. With a phenomenal following on different music and social media platforms, major milestones and filled-to-the-rafter concerts on both local and international arenas, this nine-member band has built a catalog of unforgettable songs that resonate deeply with its multitude of fans and followers.
With heartfelt gratitude, the band will have a special anniversary concert at the Smart Araneta Coliseum on October 2, and tickets are almost sold-out at this time. Billed as Saranggola: The Concert, the title is inspired by an original Ben and Ben song that continues to enjoy airplay months after it was first released. The song explores themes of solid friendships that defies time, distance and challenges. It also talks about connections and inevitable changes.
The band is also proud of the release of its anniversary album Nine, an anthology collection that looks back on the music, memories and milestones that defined Ben and Ben and shaped them into what it has become.
The nine-track album serves as a musical time capsule of Ben and Ben’s glorious nine years. Gathering nine tracks that convey key moments in their narrative, the songs dabble between nostalgia and discovery, comforting enough for the group’s longtime fanbase Liwanag to recognize the impact of every reworked part, yet fresh enough to offer new listeners an entry point into the band’s expansive musical universe.
‘We celebrate the love we have for one another and the bond we have built through the years,’ said violinist Keifer Cabugao. ‘We’re just deeply grateful, not only for everything the past has taught us, but also for the gift of being present with one another today.’
Also interesting is how the album serves as an act of revisiting-or, for simpler context, reimagining. The anthology features some of Ben and Ben’s most important songs through the perspective of musicians who have taken the journey with them for years. ‘Reimagined, for us, is letting the songs grow up with us,’ explained lead vocalist and acoustic guitar player Paolo Benjamin. ‘The members, our most loyal fans included, were shaped by life a lot during the past nine years. We’ve gone through so much-the ups and the downs and all that was in between-and inspired us to update the songs with a deeper, more nuanced perspective of the present.’ I’ve observed that this evolution is evident in the album’s production and musical direction.
‘The influences and inspiration we truly channeled in producing Nine were literally our nine years of experience in doing what we do-from the countless live performances we had all these years, and with our fanbase Liwanag, to the close relationships and solid friendships we’ve formed with each other in the band,’ shared lead guitarist and backing vocalist Poch Barretto.
The album’s focus track ‘Maybe the Night [Reimagined]’ played an important role in the band’s history, as it was the first song the members worked on from beginning to end as a nine-piece band. Reimagined nearly a decade later, ‘Maybe the Night’ becomes both a return to the beginning and a reflection of how far the nine musicians have grown since then.
Like a saranggola that is tossed into the wind to get it airborne and allow it to dance with the wind so it could fly so high, so will the songs of Ben and Ben when it takes centerstage for its anniversary concert this weekend, a fitting reminder of the beautiful journey the group enjoyed immensely for the past nine years.
For Ben and Ben, the number 9 represents a new chapter that also symbolizes enlightenment and awakening, the beginning and the end of a cycle, a closure for a period that has reached its full development, and the commencement of a transformation that will lead to the rediscovering of how its music will affect human life with a much deeper sense of universal love, truth and oneness.