Fez Festival celebrated on new DVD

The Fez Sacred Music Festival (photo: Sandy McCutcheon)

Alive Mind is a new production company that has just announced its inaugural release of their new world music line: Sound of the Soul. The DVD is an exhilarating and inspiring cinematic journey into the heart of the Fez Festival of World Sacred Music. “The music you will see in this film is extraordinary, and its message of healing is profound,” says Peter Scarlett, executive director of the Tribeca Film Festival. The footage is of the 2005 Festival

Sound of the Soul also celebrates the historic city of Fez, an ancient sanctuary for Muslim, Jewish and Christian inhabitants; its mystical Islamic foundations; its evocative medieval sites. The ancient desert Mecca is the ideal location for an exceptional music festival that brings together a gospel band from Harlem, the ethereal sound of Irish vocal group Anuna, a transcendent chorus of African Berber women, a soul-wrenching Portuguese Fado singer, a French early music ensemble, and players and vocalists from Afghanistan, England, Russia, Ireland, Mauritania, and Turkey. All are intermixed with unforgettable Moroccan Sufi performers and all are connected through their artistry by profound expressions of love and faith.

In a world increasingly polarized by religious conflicts and fundamentalist forces, Sound of the Soul reverberates with unity, understanding, and most of all, hope. This thought-provoking documentary film vividly portrays an Arab country where people of different faiths and cultures have lived together in relative peace for centuries.


On September 17th, Sound of the Soul will be released to the world along with the companion CD (exclusively available through Alive Mind) The Music From Sound of the Soul featuring ten concert performances of artists included on the DVD, such as Ireland’s Anuna, female Berber group Samaa Sahraoui from Morocco, The Sirine Choir from Russia, The Tallis Scholars of the United Kingdom, and the mighty gospel sounds of Harlem’s own, The McCullough Sounds of Thunder.


DVD extras includes a guide to world music, additional music performances, a visual tour of Fez and other Moroccan landscapes, interviews with Fez festival attendees, spiritual and political leaders on globalization and more! Sound of the Soul represents a musical treasury for world music enthusiasts and delivers a soul-restoring experience.

The 15th annual Fes Festival of World Sacred Music will be held from 29 May to 6 June 2009. The Fez Festival of Sufi Culture: "A soul for globalization" will take place from the 18th to the 25th April 2009. It will be entitled: Cultures of Sufism

For accommodation, see www.fez-riads.com.

Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news