The U2 Fez sessions - a change in direction?

‘Can you believe this?’ asked Bono, at the end of the 75-minute set. ‘Isn’t that something else ?’

A few weeks ago we broke the news about Brian Eno, Danny Lanois and U2 being in Fez. Tne story quickly escalated and soon every music journalist and their dog was running with it, each bringing more and more detail. Some credible, some not. Anyway, with all the excitement over, U2 are back in Dublin and all that remains to be seen - or heard - is what influence ( if any) Fez has had on the band.

U2's riad courtyard in Fez

One event that certainly touched the band was the performance by the foremost female singer of Persian traditional music, Parissa, working with five very skilled instrumentalists (the Dastan Ensemble) at the Fez Sacred Music Festival. The performance was one of the afternoon events held in the beautiful grounds of the Batha Museum.

Parissa wows U2

Even Brian Eno, who in the past has confessed to having a real interest in Arabic music, was clearly stunned by the non 'verse, chorus, verse' approach and the fact that the form of the music is not a simple pop length tune. Parissa's first offering lasted 45 minutes. The second song - 30 minutes.

‘Can you believe this?’ asked Bono, at the end of the 75-minute set. ‘Isn’t that something else ?’

The French website U2 France in an article headed "Les voies impénétrables de la musique arabe" reports that Edge was amazed at the sheer musical dexterity of the players... Savouring music like this is one of the reasons the band chose this city to write music in, home as it is to the annual Festival of World Sacred Music. It’s a perfect setting to sample some indigenous North African music. ‘The Festival of Sacred Music was a big lure for us and for Brian who has been very interested in Arabic music for years,’ he says. ‘We felt we might meet some interesting musicians while here – and we certainly have.’

Brian Eno expands: "Whenever there was an aesthetic decision to be made we’ve asked, ‘How would it be solved in Arabic music?’ So that gives us another frame to think in - it doesn’t mean we always do what an Arabic player might have done but it gives us a different frame of reference."

In fact, he says, just coming to Morocco, after earlier periods writing in Ireland and France, has changed their approach to songwriting. ‘I’ve had this thing about Arabic music for ages, thinking that it’s where the next big future in fusion will come from – I’ve been saying that for about thirty years and finally I think it is coming true. ‘There are things I like a lot about Arabic music which are different to what we do in western music and so we have started trying to incorporate some of those elements. It is not a question of sounds so much but of different structural decisions about how things are made.’

Fans around the world will eagerly await the outcome.

The beautiful photograph of Parissa is by Catherine Bendayan

Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news