THE VIEW FROM FEZ: Fes Festival Preview #5

Tuesday, April 05, 2016

Fes Festival Preview #5 - Nights in the Medina #2

The second of the Nights in the Medina is a mix of music and culture from around the world: from Bosnia & Herzogovina, Uzbekistan, Switzerland, Ghana, India and Morocco

SIDI MOHAMED BEN YOUSSEF CULTURAL COMPLEX – 20h00

Ensemble Dialogos will present a concert: Heretic Angels: Popular Rituals and Beliefs - music from Bosnia & Herzogovina.

Founded by singer and musicologist Katarina Livljanić, the Paris based Ensemble Dialogos interprets the sacred music of medieval Europe. Katarina Livljanic employs a wide spectrum of vocal nuances: in recitation and in singing she brings a wealth of emotions to our experience; in her clear, very agile and technically secure voice one hears not the tiniest insecurity. The concentration she brings to this tour de force is impressive.

Combining profound musicological research with great strength on stage, their work carves out a new approach to ancient music by giving it a contemporary feel. In this brand new repertoire, the group explores theatricality as well as plain chant and the first medieval polyphony, with a particular interest in the southern Slav region.

Katarina Livljanić

In this work, Dialogos presents traditional musicians who are some of the youngest heirs to the epic songs of Bosnia and Herzogovina, a country on the threshold of the Orient. These poignant, bitter songs intertwine with musical theatre, invite the public to enjoy the unusual beauty of the rituals of life, from birth to death, both pagan and Christian.

Dialogos is supported by the DRAC Ile de France – Ministry of Culture and Communication.
Co-production Fondation Royaumont.

DAR ADIYEL – 20h00 - Yulduz Turdieva – Uzbekistan - The Shash-Maqâm tradition of Bukhara

In the 15th and 16th centuries, the classical music of Central Asia was at its peak thanks to the Silk Road where merchants, sages, artists, wandering bards, pilgrims and believers of all denominations rubbed shoulders. The refined art of shash-maqâm continues to enchant after a long and arduous learning process.

Yulduz Turdieva, a classical maqâmchi singer, has achieved official acclaim but has not stopped there: she explores other genres both classical (khalqi klassiki) and popular (khalqi) as well as songs (qoshiq) and popular traditions such as those of the women of Bukhara (sâzanda). She sings in Persian-Tajik and in Uzbek.

PREFECTURE HALL - 21h30 - OY – Space Diaspora – Switzerland & Ghana

Born in Ghana, singer Joy Frempong is both Swiss and African. She and her partner, drummer Lleluja-Ha, who is the producer and co-founder of this enigmatic duo OY, come together to form avant-garde music, somewhat sassy, childlike and dreamlike, whose electronic sounds, hip hop and pop show European and African influences.

OY is an eccentric and nomadic chameleon, constantly changing its colour palette, textures, styles and accents. In their last release, a multitude of tracks creates a moving soundscape overwhelmed with touching melodies, with a few proverbs, old Ghanaian taxi horns, machine noises, windscreen wipers, fireworks and crowd noises thrown in – all the tumult of African cities! All along the lines of moving stories, a veritable harvest of sounds are sieved, finely chopped and melted into songs of shimmering shapes.

Joy Frempong and Lleluja-Ha

This time their new album, Space Diaspora (to be released in September 2016), was written and composed in Berlin. OY has absolutely gone into space here, throwing them accidentally into the future onto a planet formed by Earthlings, called Space Diaspora. Joy Frempong and Lleluja-Ha discover strange customs, unknown political and artistic practices and incredible sounds. This parabola takes the form of a bizarre epic poem somewhere between illusionist Georges Méliès and Jonathan Swift, which allows the full measure of their polymorphous talent to shine through. It is an inspired and visionary work, full of catchy tunes from Joy Frempong with her ‘fiery flow, full of soul and humour’.

SIDI MOHAMED BEN YOUSSEF CULTURAL COMPLEX – 23h00

Parvathy Baul and Mehdi Nassouli – Poetry of Wandering Mystics: from Bauls to Gnawas – India and Morocco

Poetess Parvathy Baul

Tell me, Fool,What are you looking for on the roads of the world?Look in your room and you will find the jewel …The same cosmic game is played in the human body,Just like the moon hides behind the clouds.To know the self, this is to pray.He who knows the Invisible, says Lalan,Knows where to go - Fakir Lalan Shah

Poetess Parvathy Baul whirls with her arms outstretched to the sky, caught in the spiral of a breeze that frees the spirit. She projects her being almost as healing, while reciting vague mystical poetry. She is truly an enchantress from another world.

Mehdi Nassouli

Young Mehdi Nassouli believes that his Gnawa heritage gives him great musical inspiration.

The Bauls (from the Sanskrit vatul, literally ‘fool’, drunk with divine aspiration) are the last great nomadic mystics of the world. They dance somewhere between heaven and earth, between poetic ecstasy and carnal reality. They are not far away from the universe of the Gnawas, whose roots go deep into ancestral African trance.

Thanks to Helen Ranger for translations from the French

Nights in The Medina 2

May 10

Book your ticket here

The View From Fez is a Fez Festival official Media Partner
FULL FESTIVAL PROGRAMME HERE