Fes Festival Sufi Nights - Night 8 - Tariqa Wazzaniyya

For the eighth and last concert of the Sufi Nights series a group from the tariqa Wazzaniyya presented an evening of samā` wa madiḥ (Sufi praise poetry that is chanted or sung). This group brought the series back full circle to the style of Sufi samā` presented by the tariqa Skalliyya last Saturday night. This is samā` that is sung alternately by soloists and the entire group, usually unaccompanied by instruments, and is rooted in the melodic and rhythmic modes of Moroccan Andalusian music.

The tariqa Wazzaniyya takes it’s name from the zawiya (Sufi lodge) of Wazzan, Morocco which was founded around the year 1670 by Mulay `Abdallah bin Ibrahim ash-Sharif (1596-1678). The current Sheikh or leader of the Wazzaniyya is Moulay Ahmad al-Wazzani. However he was not present at this concert and one member of the group from Fez, named Abdallah al-Wazzani, told me that there was not a single leader of this particular group and that all the men present at Dar Tazi came together from various cities and were equally responsible.

The first portion of the concert consisted of long passages of solo singing, which were then answered by group singing. The pieces started slow and heavy and ended faster and lighter, reflecting the Moroccan Andalusian musical structure.

The mood was similar to last night. There was a steady stream of local families and visitors coming and going throughout the evening. The audience lounged in the garden, and some sang along, referring to printed copies of the poetry that the group distributed before the concert.

For the last portion of the concert one of the singers took out a double headed drum and began to play simple and repetitive rhythms that added momentum and rhythmic drive to the sung poetry.

The energy increased and the group sustained a heightened mood until the end. Solo and group vocals locked in sync with the rhythms of the drum and towards the end the audience joined the group in repeating “la ilaha illa Allah” (there is no god but God). By the end of the concert the audience sitting in the garden was completely engaged, and a space was created where the Wazzaniyya performed with the listeners instead of for them.

Story and photographs: Phil Murphy

Earlier Sufi Night reviews
Tariqa Skalliyya
Tariqa Sharqawiyya
Hamadcha Brotherhood
Tariqa Mashishiyya
The Darqawiyya
The Isawa
La Hadra Chefchaounia

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Fes Festival Final Concert - Joan Baez

Tonight at Bab Makina, the Fes Festival experienced something very special. Joan Baez produced a concert that was a celebration of music, spirituality and political bravery.  It could have simply been a nostalgic look back at an illustrious career. But Joan Baez made certain that it was not the case.  Sandy McCutcheon and Vanessa Bonnin report.

In a two hour set, Baez showed why she is worthy of being the world's best known female folk singer. Dressed simply but elegantly, with a dramatic flowing red scarf, Baez looked to be in fine form; slim, her silver hair cropped. There was no great show-biz flare, no dramatics, but rather a set of music that was as skilfully crafted as it was delivered.

The Fes Festival of World Sacred Music aspires to deliver what its name says; sacred music. Baez was right on song with her first offering; Steve Earle's reflective God is God. The audience were rapt. This was Joan Baez and she had lost none of her distinctive vocal purity. If anything her voice had, like matured wine, grown more interesting. Her guitar playing was as good as it has always been.

Dirk Powell

Two favourites followed. Baez gave a heartfelt rendition of Christopher Logue's song about mortality,  Be Not too Hard, and Dylan's Farewell Angelina, before her "little band" joined her on stage. The two member band comprised her son, Gabriel Harris, on percussion and cajon box drum and the very talented multi-instrumentalist, Dirk Powell. During the evening Powell switched between, accordion, banjo, mandolin, and keyboards.

Gabriel Harris

The only traditional song of the evening, Lily of the West, was accompanied by drums and banjo.

At this point there came a subtle change in the texture of the evening. The songs became more consciously political.  "The most beautiful anti-war song I know, plus belle" Baez said and launched into Dylan's God On Our Side with Dirk Powell on accordion.

So now as I'm leavin'
I'm weary as Hell
The confusion I'm feelin'
Ain't no tongue can tell
The words fill my head
And fall to the floor
If God's on our side
He'll stop the next war.

Aware that many in the audience were Francophone, Baez very considerately used a lot of French, not only in her introductions, but with the next song - another Dylan, Don't think Twice it's Alright - she changed the chorus to French: “Ne pense plus, tout est bien.” 

Never afraid to go out on the edge, Baez then delivered a powerful and moving rendition of Richard Shindell's risky Ballad of Mary Magdalene. The audience lapped it up.

However, it was the next song that won over the crowd completely. There was an audible gasp as Baez launched into Steve Earle's Jerusalem.

But I believe there'll come a day when the lion and the lamb
Will lie down in peace together in Jerusalem

And there'll be no barricades then
There'll be no wire or walls
And we can wash all this blood from our hands
And all this hatred from our souls

And I believe that on that day all the children of Abraham
Will lay down their swords forever in Jerusalem

Baez demonstrated a tremendous raport with the audience. Never once did she (as Bjork had done the previous night) perform at the audience. Baez engaged totally and won hearts with her generosity of spirit. This was beautifully demonstrated when she stopped and invited a child up on stage.

“Do you want to come up here and sing? This is my friend from last night, she had lots of questions: do you like to sing, do you write your own songs, what will you sing?”  Unfazed by the huge crowd watching, skipped up and greeted Baez. A heartwarming gesture by Baez.

The next song was a surprising inclusion; Hard Times Come Again No More, written by Stephen Foster and first published in 1854.

Then it was back to familiar territory with Donovan's Catch the Wind, beautifully delivered with harmony vocals from Dirk Powell.

Baez paused to dedicate the next song.

“I want to dedicate this song to the people around the world who take risks. People ask me can music change the world? My answer is yes, if those musicians take risks.”

She then recounted the story of being sent a song from a church during the 1960's civil rights movement. The song was Swing Low Sweet Chariot.

Heading back into turbulent political waters, Baez announced she would sing a song she has been singing for forty years. The song, Le Déserteur (The Deserter), written by Boris Vian and Harold Berg, is another anti-war classic. The crowd loved it.

refusez d'obéir,
refusez de la faire,
n'allez pas à la guerre,
refusez de partir.

S'il faut donner son sang,
allez donner le vôtre,
vous êtes bon apôtre,
monsieur le Président.

Si vous me poursuivez
prévenez vos gendarmes
que je n'aurai pas d'armes
et qu'ils pourront tirer.

After the applause finally died down, Baez was joined on stage by a young singer, Marianne Aya Omark from Montpellier and together they sung a duet, before the Marianne vocally reproduced the sound of a trumpet and launched into an up-tempo Spanish number. Baez danced and the crowd went wild.

Mother and son

Marianne Aya Omark

The concert was full of light and shade, but nothing surprised and delighted the crowd more than Baez switching to Arabic and singing Ya Hammouda, a song from Lebanon.

The music kept coming; House of the Rising Sun, her historic Woodstock song; Joe Hill and Cohen's masterpiece, Suzanne, which she interpreted in in own inimitable way - perfect.

There is always a catch in Joan Baez's throat when she introduces the song about her relationship with Bob Dylan. "Check this out ... 50 years ago I bought you some cufflinks." The emotion she displayed suggests that time does not heal all wounds. The song,  Diamonds and Rust, brought the crowd to their feet.

The concert was supposedly over, but the crowd would not let her go. The encores built one upon the other as the people surged forward, some even dancing on stage.

Gracias a la Vida, We shall Overcome, John Lennon's Imagine and Blowing in the Wind, all became mass anthems.

What was so refreshing was that tonight security let it happen. The crowd, including Festival Director Faouzi Skali, came forward and celebrated.  It was a magical evening. The Fes Festival is to be thanked for the superb programming of Joan Baez and Joan Baez is to be thanked for putting the "festive" back in "Festival".

"The best concert of the festival" A standing ovation for Joan Baez from the huge crowd

SEE OUR FES FESTIVAL WRAP UP HERE! 

FÈS FESTIVAL QUICK LIST

Festival Programme
Festival in the City
Sufi Nights
Festival Forums
Festival Eating Guide
Art during the Festival #1
Art during the Festival #2
The Enchanted Gardens of Fez
Last Minute Accommodation

Reporting: Sandy McCutcheon and Vanessa Bonnin
Photographs: Vanessa Bonnin, Suzanna Clarke, Sandy McCutcheon

The View from Fez is an official Media Partner of the Fès Festival of World Sacred Music



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Anuj Mishra - Kathak Dance @ Fes Festival

The final concert at the delightful Batha Museum venue presented Anuj Mishra and Niha Singh  from India performing Kathak Dance.

 In the beginning, the storytellers (kathakara) in the temples of Uttar Pradesh, where Krishna was born, sang and mimed the sacred texts of the Ramayana and the Bhagavad-Gita. A performance that alternated between pure dance and narrative.

Later, in the palaces of the Mughal Emperors as well as in the courts of the Hindu Maharajas, Kathak became a refined dance form, completely devotional in nature. It was considerably enriched by elements of Persian culture and also evolved within the aesthetic of the Muslim culture of the three great schools in Northern India at Varanasi, Lucknow and Jaipur.

The rhythmic virtuosity and the barely touching movements, a kind of whirlwind of body and spirit, make Kathak an almost celestial expression.

Anuj Mishra has become a prodigy of Kathak dance in a few short years. He studied Kathak from a young age under the tutelage of his father, rising at 4am to practise his foot exercises on sand.

His father Arjun Mishra is widely recognised in India as one of the best Kathak dancers. Born into a musical family in Varanasi, he learned singing and tabla from childhood. But once he discovered Kathak he decided to devote himself to it. He studied with the masters of the tradition in Varanasi and then went to Delhi to study further under Birju Maharaj, the uncontested master of the great Lucknow tradition. Sadly Arjun Mishra was not well enough to perform in Fez.

Accompanied by tabla, sarod and harmonium, Anuj Mishra attains the difficult synthesis between a dazzling dance technique and an innate sense of expressing a whole range of emotions (abhinaya).

The first part of the performance was "The Dance of Creation" and was performed by Anuf Mishra and Niha Singh. From the first series of graceful movements the audience was left in no doubt that they were experiencing brilliant exponents of the Lucknow School of Kathak. The timing, fluidity and sense of drama were all on display.

The dance was greeted with prolonged applause.

Niha Singh then left the stage to Anuj Mishra. 'This is the technical part,' he explained. "The foot movements are very intricate and the body positions most difficult." He was not wrong. But not once did he falter. His feet, circled at the ankles by tiny bells, flew in a blur; the sound of his steps creating a bass note beat that was perfectly matched by the tabla.

A musical and dance version of "question and answer" followed, with the tabla player and Anjuj Mishra trading rhythmic patterns in a dazzling display of superbly timed footwork.

The second part saw a change of costume and Niha returned and performed a stunning solo.

Anuj then demonstrated his tremendous talent - a breath-taking display of spinning.

From an audience point of view this afternoon’s performance of Kathak dance was educational as well as entertaining. Anuj Mishra took great pleasure in interacting with the audience, stopping between each dance to explain the intricacies to a grateful crowd who hung on his every word.

He explained the moves that represented animals, such as the deer, cow and lion, the importance of facial expression in the dance and the break down of the sixteen-beat rhythms.

These rhythms – played on the tabla drums – were pounded out by his feet and counted in the swift turns as he twirled endlessly. Mishra commented on the heat and hoped it didn’t affect his ability to perform, but the precision of his moves never faltered.

The joy of the performance was equal between the dancers, musicians and audience – with smiles on each face, every way you turned.

“Thank you to the Fes Festival for inviting us, to Morocco and most of all to the beautiful audience,” Mishra said as they took a bow.

Anne Graaff from South Africa said this afternoon’s performance was one of her highlights of the whole Festival.

“The dance was rhythmically constructed in such an intricate manner – it’s mathematical and very complex,” she said. “I also realised the connection to the development of Western classical dance – Kathak dance must be the roots of that, from the Mughal courts of the Raj.

“The setting was perfect, under the spreading limbs of this great tree, and to see such beauty in the costumes. They were ravishing!

“Both of them were an eyeful of beauty, but she’s like a little jewel box, a princess in a paradise garden.
“It was just perfect.”

This was an extremely enjoyable concert both from the point of view of dance and that of fine Indian music. From its origins in Calcutta in the 12th century to the stage at the Batha Museum is a long one and the audience gave the dancers and musicians sustained applause for a display that showed Kathak is alive and in good hands - or maybe, feet.

FÈS FESTIVAL QUICK LIST

Festival Programme
Festival in the City
Sufi Nights
Festival Forums
Festival Eating Guide
Art during the Festival #1
Art during the Festival #2
The Enchanted Gardens of Fez
Last Minute Accommodation

Reporting: Vanessa Bonnin, Sandy McCutcheon 
Photographs: Suzanna Clarke

The View from Fez is an official Media Partner of the Fès Festival of World Sacred Music

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Preview - Joan Baez @ the Fes Festival

Joan Baez is part of the history of American popular music alongside Bob Dylan. She continues her career inexorably across the world, always deeply engaged in the fight for liberty. Yesterday she told The View From Fez about her opinions on the Arab Spring, debunked the ‘Peace and Love’ myth and explained how she is coming to terms with getting older. Vanessa Bonnin reports.

At this stage of her life Joan Baez has mellowed and is currently placing family at the forefront of her world.

“Now I’ve got the opportunity to be with my son, my grand daughter and my mother and my friends so now the image of me as always at the front lines in battle is a little subdued for the moment and I don’t want to present a false image,” she said.

“But now I represent everything I’ve done and everything I do as non-violence, I haven’t changed that.”

Non-violence is the core of Baez’s philosophy in the face of adversity. Throughout her career Baez has always fought for human rights. In 1972 she went to Vietnam during the bombing of Hanoi, and continued her battle for liberty and against the death penalty across the world, including Sarajevo in 1993. An Amnesty International militant, she has also created her own association, Humanitas International. So how did she set out on this path?

“When I was 10 years old I spent a year in Baghdad and my mother gave me the Diary of Anne Frank which started to change my life,” she said.

“Then when I was 16 years old I met Martin Luther King and he changed my life again.“

This momentous meeting was on August 28 1963 during the march on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Luther King made his famous ‘I have a dream’ speech and Baez sang We Shall Overcome.

The rejection Baez suffered by her white and Mexican friends because of a mixed-race background (her mother was Irish and her father Mexican), and a great sensibility in the face of world suffering, pushed her into expressing herself through music, fascinated as she was at the time by the great black singer Odetta.

In Boston she followed in the musical footsteps of Pete Seeger while the folk and protest song movement boomed. And then it was the famous meeting with Bob Dylan which launched her to stardom along with her faithful interpretation of the most historic songs such as With God on Our Side and later Farewell Angelina. Her ambiguous relationship with Dylan was described in Diamonds and Rust.

“Diamonds and Rust? Unfortunately there weren’t more songs of that quality!” she laughs.

“As for the generation of ‘Peace and Love’ – that’s not how I would typify it because it was also a generation of struggle, it was 10 years of enormous creativity, it was 10 years of people taking risks it was 10 years of difficulties that people who see it as a myth don’t remember. It’s Woodstock and flower children and peace and love, but in fact if you were an 18 year old American male you had to decided whether you wanted to go and fight in Vietnam or not.”

Since that time Baez thinks that the amount of risk in the western world has diminished and that it is only by taking risks that social change can happen. She said that music by itself is not enough to change the world, it has to be followed up by action.

“My greatest source of inspiration comes from seeing the courage of other people. I believe that courage is as contagious as violence and that if we can take our inspiration from other people who’ve done things and taken a risk,” she said.

“The Arab Spring is extraordinary - it’s as extraordinary as having a black president!

“For me the most extraordinary part is the people who have demonstrated non-violence in the face of such atrocity. Partly they understand the practicality because to attempt to use arms against the regimes is catastrophic, but for all of us to have seen this – for instance, the demonstrations in Wisconsin in the States, of the people coming to the capital, I don’t think would have happened without the example of the Arab Spring.”

Baez said that for the Occupy Wall St movement to continue it needed organisation because it was trying to tackle too many huge issues all at once.

“My motto is little victories and big defeats. If you can accept that there will be big defeats then you can relish and cherish and believe in your little victories and I think that’s what we have to do in this decade and maybe this century.”

So after seeing and experiencing so much in her lifetime, what gets her through and what is in the future? Baez says her spirituality comes from her mother and it has no name or specific God. She puts her attachment to nature at the centre of what helps her to stay grounded.

“The other night I was singing in Germany somewhere outside and a mockingbird started to sing and I just stopped and I said ‘I am nothing’ because that’s how I felt in the face of such an extraordinary sound, and animal and gift!” she said.

“As for time? Time is inevitable. And if I could be a little more on the side of the Buddhists I would welcome it better but one the reasons I am happy to be around my mother is that I am watching how to get old. If I’m lucky she’ll die at home and I’ll be there and I’ll learn more about this thing which the western world finds so terrifying, because none of us will escape it.“

As for the music, today Baez has a fundamental influence on a new generation of singers from Norah Jones to Katie Melua, from Souad Massi to Tunisian Emel Mathlouthi. At a time when folk and acoustic sounds are returning to the forefront of music, Baez, radiant and tough, continues to travel around the world with determination and grace.

“For Saturday’s concert, hopefully I will be smart enough to show you some new songs which will not bore you, I will show you some that you may have heard and then I’ll do the ones that you came to hear. I promise!”

Report and photographs: Vanessa Bonnin
Joan Baez performs tonight at Bab Al Makina @ 8.30pm.


SEE CONCERT PHOTOS AND REVIEW HERE!

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Fes Festival Sufi Nights - Night 7 - La Hadra Chefchaounia

La Hadra Chefchaounia is an all female ensemble, and therefore a rare treat and an important addition for the Sufi Nights series. Although there are many women’s ensembles in Morocco, especially in the North, it is still not very common for women’s Sufi ensembles to play staged concerts. Phil Murphy reports.

Lala Rhoum al-Bakkali

Lala Rhoum El Bakkali is a descendant of Sidi Ali Hajj Bakkali who founded the zawiya (Sufi lodge) Bakkali of Chefchaoun. She is a professor of music and teaches solfege, piano and Arab-Andalusian music, in addition to acting as the leader and musical director for La Hadra Chefchaounia.

Tonight’s performance consisted of Sufi poetry, written by al-Harraq, Sheikh Sidi Ali Ben Raysoun, and Sidi Ali Hajj Bakkali, set to music. The melodies and rhythms used come from the Northern Moroccan Andalusian tradition of Chefchaoun.

The women in this group made the performance seem effortless, as they alternated between simple and complex rhythms played on hand drums and, at the same time, sang beautiful melodies informed by Andalusian melodic modes. Lala Rhoum and a few of the other women sang wonderful solo sections, however the most impressive aspect of the performance was the way that all of the voices blended together to create an ethereal and beautiful sound.

The ambiance tonight was much more relaxed than last night’s crowd for the `Isawa. There was a large turnout, but visitors and locals were able to lounge comfortably in the garden and listen to the beautiful vocals floating overhead.

Story and photographs: Phil Murphy

Tonight Saturday 16 June at 23h00 Dar Tazi
The final Sufi Night with the Wazzaniya Brotherhood

Earlier Sufi Night reviews
Tariqa Skalliyya
Tariqa Sharqawiyya
Hamadcha Brotherhood
Tariqa Mashishiyya
The Darqawiyya
The Isawa

FÈS FESTIVAL QUICK LIST

Festival Programme
Festival in the City
Sufi Nights
Festival Forums
Festival Eating Guide
Art during the Festival #1
Art during the Festival #2
The Enchanted Gardens of Fez
Last Minute Accommodation

The View from Fez is an official Media Partner of the Fès Festival of World Sacred Music

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Bjork - Biophilia @ The Fes Festival of World Sacred Music

The audience is packed in, Princess Lalla Salma has arrived and now it is time for Bjork at Bab Makina in Fes...

The lights fade up slowly and thirteen hooded, barefooted faeries come on stage, garbed in robes of shiny blue and bronze fabric. The first impression is of a slightly odd girl's choir.They begin a low chorus, building up to the moment we have all be waiting for – Bjork’s entrance.

Bjork comes on stage, the projection screen lights up and a solid bass rumble sends palpable vibrations through the audience.

Known for her quirky fashion and statement costumes, Bjork's appearance did not disappoint. An electric blue latex dress clung to her petite figure and was covered in three-dimensional fossil-like coils.

Bjork opened her mouth and the first taste of her extraordinary other-worldly voice caused goosebumps. The first song was Cosmogony, entirely appropriate for starting us on the Biophilia journey.

“Heaven. Heaven's bodies
Whirl around me. Make me wonder
And they say back then our universe was a coal black egg
Until the God inside burst out and from it's shattered shell
He made what became the world we know…”

However Bjork was intent on re-inventing the world we know. A masterful combination of video, lighting and voice created mesmerising soundscapes that pushed the limits of previous musical experience.

The second song Hunter, from her Homogenic album was a crowd pleaser – the audience roared when it recognized the opening bars and realised there was going to be a mix of both old and new material.

Despite having just recovered from a throat infection, Bjork does not hold back and what ensues is Bjork magic. There is no time wasted on chatting with the audience.A fade to black and then on with the next song.

At times her words are indistinguishable swamped by the massive electronic rumble. In other moment's Bjork's voice rings clear. "Have I too often craved miracles?" She trills the "r" in "miracle" for the longest time.

It is amazing what you can do with a few Ipads...

The projected images are intricate; time-lapse photography of mushrooms growing. A cell falling victim to a virus, hundreds of starfish and were they seas worms? At other times - the molten core of the earth, surging up, causing tectonic plates to buckle and shift. It is powerful stuff.

One of two large Tesla Coils discharging

There were no actual pyrotechnics, but the next best thing; inside two huge Faraday cages are Nikolai Tesla's famous Tesla Coils; discharging high voltage lightning bolts. The coils came to life in song number three – Thunderbolt – and the atmosphere was truly electric. Combined with a slow motion video of a lunar eclipse the effect was striking.

“All my body parts are one
As lightning hits my spine,
Sparkling
Prime runs through me,
Revive my wish
Inviolable.
May I, can I, or have I too often?
Craving miracles…”

And always this tsunami of sound produced by the two young men behind the electronic machinery. Bjork hops, skips, shakes her wrists and flexes her fingers as the music moves through her. It is an fascinating alchemy; the melding of faerie and machine.

After this Bjork made her first tentative contact with the audience, simply saying “merci bien” in her child-like voice, and then going straight into Hidden Place. The arresting video with this track was a fast motion film of starfish and writhing eels marching and slithering over coral, which built up to the creatures feeding from the carcass of a seal on the sea floor.

The next song Unravel was another crowd favourite and her singing “like a ball of yarn” was amusing when taken in context with the fantastic wig on her head – a bulbous confection of coloured threads and wool that framed her elfin face. Her dress caught and reflected the light, her tights glittered and she jumped and stomped on her platform boots, shaking her hands in a vibrant dance.

Another time-lapse video of mushrooms sprouting accompanied Isobel from her Post album – bringing shouts of “we love you Bjork!” from the crowd.

Mouth's Cradle and then Joga was next and CGI images of the earth moving and tectonic plates shifting and cracking perfectly matched the crashing electric howls, beats and groaning bass.

The end of the video swirled around an image of Bjork on top of a mountain, who then opened her insides and invited the viewer in to find a lonely island floating inside of her.

This image led perfectly into Hollow, which was accompanied by images of cells, veins and DNA.

“Hollow, my ancestors have access
Hollow, I'm falling down the abyss
Hollow, looking for some answers…”

In the song Hollow, Björk took inspiration from her "ancestors and DNA, that the grounds open below you and you can feel your mother and her mother, and her mother, and her mother, and her mother 30,000 years back. So suddenly you're this kinda tunnel, or trunk of DNA… All these ghosts come up so it ended up being a Halloween song and quite gothic in a way… It's like being part of this everlasting necklace when you're just a bead on a chain and you sort of want to belong and be a part of it and it's just like a miracle."

Virus followed and the hit Pagan Poetry, after which Bjork finally connected with the crowd, saying “Hello, how are you? You seem so far away. You should come closer. I only have a few songs left. You should think about it.”

Then Náttúra -  “this song is dedicated to a volcano in Iceland," Bjork announces. The volcano is Eyjafjallajökull. And in the manner of its namesake, all hell is let loose. This is the moment the concert erupts to another level. The thirteen backing faeries have tossed back their hoods and now appear less like faeries and more like bad pixie escapees from some Nordic summer camp.

The lyrics are as intriguing as Bjork herself and at times as mysterious. Dark Matter features heavy gibberish since the dark matter phenomena are directly "unexplainable". Virus is about "fatal relationships" such as the relationship between a virus and a cell.

The biophilia hypothesis suggests that there is an instinctive bond between human beings and other living systems. Edward O. Wilson introduced and popularised the hypothesis in his book, Biophilia (1984). He defines biophilia as "the urge to affiliate with other forms of life".

"One day it will all make sense" - Bjork

The last song, Mutual Core, has the hooded dancers huddled in a circle and a film of the earth from space showing the fault lines splitting to reveal the earth’s core. The dancers slowly rise up with a harmonious howl and descend to the floor again before the stage went to black.

An extended ovation brought Bjork back out for a solo rendition of One Day: “One day it will happen, one day it will all make sense,” she sang and then encouraged the audience to whistle with her.

A rousing rendition of Declare Independence was the final number and Bjork’s powerful yells of “declare independence, don’t let them do that to you, raise the flag, higher, higher” finally provided the rebellious energy the audience needed to dance with great gusto in the aisles.

Overall the concert had the quality of a musical science lesson and an experimental journey of immersion into the cosmos and sound. The great poet Kabira wrote:

The well is one
Water bearers many
Each one's vessel is different
But the water is the same.


Bjork is bearer and her vessel is very different - but the water is the same.

SET LIST

Óskasteinn
Cosmogony
Hunter
Thunderbolt
Moon
Hidden Place
Crystalline
Unravel
Isobel
Mouth's Cradle
Jóga
Hollow
Virus
Pagan Poetry
Náttúra
Mutual Core
Encore:
One Day
Declare Independence 

AUDIENCE REACTION
Vanessa Bonnin was out and about taking the pulse of the audience.

Marcus Virta from Helsinki 

Expectation was high in the pre-concert crowd for Bjork tonight and there was an army of her fans who had come from far and wide. Marcus Virta from Helsinki was at the first Biophilia concert in Manchester and was wearing the t-shirt to prove it.

“I was coerced into going by my friend because I wasn’t a fan but after that concert I was converted,” he enthused.

Camelia El Hakem from Fes

Camelia El Hakem from Fes was working backstage and said that she’d seen Bjork who seemed “really simple and normal."

"I am a big fan, it was like a dream for me, I didn’t think I’d ever meet her!” she said.

There was a lot of interest in the stage set which had been shipped in and assembled overnight. Head of sound Eric Loots explained the odd-looking baskets hanging at either side of the stage.

“It’s a Tesla-coil inside a Faraday basket – its electrical and discharges a massive current which makes a brilliant sound and arcs of light. It’s linked to the keyboard player so he can vary the amount of current and change the sound. He also controls the three organs on the back of the stage,” he explained.

“I’m really looking forward to it, it’s going to be something completely different for the Festival, and also louder than we’re used to! Plus lots of low frequency bass, which will create vibrations, you should be able to feel it in the audience. I wonder if the suits in the front row will like it?!”

Rebel dancer, and Fes resident from England Gail Leonard said “I was just mesmerised and so excited! The most unachievable sounds were achieved, I was gobsmacked.”

Moroccan Marouane Belayachi said the concert was perfect.
“I thought it was great, we had a lot of fun and it was really spiritual.”

Fes resident from Australia Josephine Kwan said the combination of sounds from the instruments and Bjork’s voice was incredible.

“She has such individuality, I totally loved the whole experience. And the fact that she had saved her voice for Fes – we’re so glad you did! Thank you Bjork!”

As well as the usual sponsors in suits in the front section, Princess Salma was also in attendance.

The pre-concert announcement of a camera ban caused consternation in the crowd, who would have liked to be able to record their experience. It was explained that Bjork had requested no cameras, phones, video or “electronic beepy things” as she wanted the audience to enter completely into the experience and join her in her magical world.

The one negative in the night came after Bjork invited the audience to come forward. Unfortunately the overbearing security at Bab Al Makina did not get the message. Enthusiastic audience members, who had paid a premium ticket price, were roughly repelled by brutish guards who caused an unnecessary commotion and their behaviour was entirely contradictory to the spirit of the Festival.

With even the star performer complaining that the audience were too far away – and the overbearing security who were far more distracting and invasive than the presence of cameras would have ever been; there are issues to be addressed.

Some serious reconsideration needs to be given to the amount of premium space given to sponsors who are only there for show and don’t appreciate the music, to the detriment of serious fans who are denied the right to dance and enjoy the show. This, as we saw tonight, also affects the performer’s experience and Bjork’s disappointment with the restriction of the audience’s ability to interact with her was evident.


BIOPHILIA
Biophilia was Bjork's eighth album and was released released 10th of October 2011.

The album is "partly recorded" on an iPad and, as well as a standard CD release. Biophilia is the world's "first app album" in collaboration with Apple. Björk has described the project as a multimedia collection "encompassing music, apps, Internet, installations, and live shows". Material from the album debuted during a concert series which was held in the summer of 2011 at the Manchester International Festival.

Reporting: Sandy McCutcheon and Vanessa Bonnin


The View from Fez is an official Media Partner of the Fès Festival of World Sacred Music


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