Dhafer Youssef - Electric Sufi

 

The fusion of electronic music with traditional rhythms and folk sounds is a fact in all corners of the world; from Asia to Latin America, the Balkans, the Middle East or Eastern Europe. However, most of the time everything comes down to a single formula: running “ethnic” melodies and instruments over pre-programmed beats of questionable artistic value. Far from falling into this reductionism, appears Dhafer Youssef, who has taken Arab and North African music along the electronic path while maintaining the spirituality and depth that characterizes Islamic music.

Born in Tunisia in 1967, since 1990 he settled in Europe, where he began to get involved in the avant garde and world music movements; to which he added the sound of his oud (a Middle Eastern lute) and his traditional training in Sufi music and Islamic singing learned since he was a child.

In order not to fall into the trap of electronic clichés, this album uses a luxury roster, with outstanding figures of European jazz and monsters of electronics and North American rock that give the project a global dimension and countless levels. deep.

Recorded in New York, the enormous contribution of Doug Wimbish and Will Calhoun, the rhythmic basis of Living Color and avant-garde electroacoustic projects such as Headfake, stands out here. Both Wimbish on bass and Calhoun on drums contribute all the wisdom acquired in a long career that for several decades has been characterized by the intelligent use of technology in music. Far from getting bogged down in disco resources, the Calhoun-Wimbish duo adds postmodern sound and body to Youssef's Sufi mysticism, through the expressive use of pedalboards, effects and settings that enhance the spiritual atmosphere through which the album takes us.

The lineup is completed by a selection of the highlights of European jazz: the Germans Markus Stockhausen (trumpeter with solid classical training) and Dieter Ilg (double bass); the Austrian guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel, the South African of Indian origin Deepak Ram (bansuri, Indian classical flute) and the now legendary French percussionist Mino Cinelu (known for his work with Miles Davis Weather Report).

The album opens showing them in a very tight jazz ensemble in “Mandakini”, where Youssef on his lute and Cinelu on percussion mark the beginning of what grows and develops as a great improvisation to which they join in the leadership of Ram on flute and Muthspiel on guitar.

With “Yabay”, the Tunisian exploits to the full his expressiveness as a soloist, the melancholy of his singing and his oud, and the moving heights to which he reaches with his high notes.

  Next, the electronic army makes its entrance on “Electric Sufi”, with the drum’n bass of Calhoun and Wimbish supporting Ram and Youssef. The openness and sensitivity of both Americans to incorporate rhythms and melodies from Africa and the East into their electronic combo is notable here. Something that is repeated in “Man of wool”, where Wimbish's touch to achieve climates through effects and pedals with his bass accompanies a surreal atmosphere created by Calhoun's electronic drums, on which the singer mounts to achieve a of the most mystical and mysterious pieces on the entire CD.

In solo passages such as “Oil on Water” and “La nuit sacre” Youssef offers with his oud a break from the tension that is generated in those complex combinations of electronica and ethnic music. Likewise, the ballad “La prière de l'absent” is supported by Stockhausen's trumpet and the rest of the European jazz combo that supports him, to offer a bit of necessary peace and harmony.

“Nouba” runs along the same path, where Youssef's vocal and instrumental abilities emerge in all their splendor to achieve one of the tightest points of sonic fusion of the entire album along with the exceptional “Suraj”.

As if something else were missing, the Tunisian surprises with a brilliant performance of Maghrebi flamenco in “Farha”, supported by an impeccable solo percussion performance by Cinelu, and his continuation in “Nafha”.

“Al-Hallaj” (mystical martyr tribute to Islam from the 10th century) constitutes the strongest reference to the religiosity that inspires Youssef's music; and “Langue muette” solemnly closes an ecumenical work that is moving because of the plurality and quality with which Islamic, African, European and American cultural traditions coexist.

Dhafer Youssef vocal, oud, sounds

Wolfgang Muthspiel guitars

Markus Stockhausen trumpets, flh

Deepak Ram bansuri

Dieter Ilg ac. + el. bass

Doug Wimbish electric bass

Mino Cinelu drums, perc.

Will Calhoun drums, loops

Rodericke Packe ambient sounds

1. Mandakini 05:07

2. Yabay 03:14

3. Electric Sufi 04:56

4. Oil On Water 02:43

5. La Priere De L Absent 06:43

6. Man Of Wool 07:03

7. La Nuit Sacree 06:23

8. Nouba 06:47

9. Farha 05:34

10. Nafha 05:24

11. Al Hallaj 03:18

12. Suraj 06:13

13. Langue Muette 03:33