The music of Club d'Elf flies through North African trance, glitchy turntablism, improvisation, and rock psychedelia, but it's playfully altered states of musical consciousness that truly guide the band. Witness founder Mike Rivard's first night in Morocco, the country that had fired his musical imagination for more than a decade: In a strikingly vivid dream, he felt himself swimming upwards in the air as fantastic landscapes, mountains, and tiled buildings stretched out beneath him.
The band-a rotating group of players drawn from a pool that includes keyboardist John Medeski, DJ Logic, David Bowie's guitarists or any number of Moroccan musical icons-swims in the same dreamlike atmosphere, both live-Club d'Elf tours New England this April-and on their new double album Electric Moroccoland / So Below(Face Pelt; April 5, 2011).
Club d'Elf grabs the elusive subtleties of North African rhythms and puts them through their edgy paces on Electric Moroccoland, the first disc of their new two-CD set. Here, the group is influenced by Morocco's rich musical heritage and Rivard's dedication to the three-stringed, camel-skinned, bass-like sintir. On the second disc, So Below , Rivard and company de- and reconstruct musical forms from funk and dub to jazz, creating an anything-goes exploration that holds true to the spirit of trance and the affinity that connects Club D'Elf's diverse players and their varying styles.
"The crux of Moroccan music is trance," Rivard explains. "Trance as a quality in music has always attracted me, whether it's an extended James Brown cut, or something by Fela or Steve Reich. I've always sought out music that allows you to forget where and who you are and to break out of the mind's constant chatter."
Rivard's fascination with Moroccan, and specifically Gnawan music, began thanks to a fellow traveler in trance, the late Mark Sandman of the legendary indie rock band Morphine. One night, Sandman threw on a CD by Hassan Hakmoun, Gnawa musician extraordinaire. After begging to borrow the album, Rivard went home and listened to it over and over again. "I never returned it, and that was something that Mark always grumbled about," Rivard laughs. "I played it constantly, and it became the soundtrack for my life. That's when I dedicated myself to playing sintir."
The three-stringed deep-voiced instrument forms the foundation of ceremonies among the Gnawa, whose ancestors came as slaves from sub-Saharan Africa 500 years ago. Their music blends animism and Sufism in rituals designed to induce trance, to contact spirits, and to heal. Rivard began learning to play the instrument on his own, practicing long hours with recordings and trying out rock riffs to see what worked. He also began taking cues from Moroccan musician friends likeoud (Arabic lute) player and percussionist Brahim Fribgane, who introduced him to Moroccan émigrés in the Boston area, a community of expats who provided encouragement and inspiration for Rivard during late-night hangs in the basement of a Moroccan store.
Eventually, Rivard's fascination with the instrument led him to the Moroccan coastal city of Essaouira, where he spent time in the home of one of the great Gnawan malaams (a master of ceremonies and master musician). It was there that he began to grasp just how intense and complex sintir technique could be. "It's amazing what you can do on an instrument with only three strings and a one-octave range. But in the hands of someone like Malaam Mahmoud Guinea, the sintir has infinite possibilities that go beyond the physical act of playing. He uses the instrument as a device to connect with the spirit world. It's both powerful and humbling."
Rivard uncovered a whole soundscape of subtleties as he became more and more deeply attuned to Moroccan music. One challenge came as Rivard tried to unpack the rhythmic pattern of the chaabi, a beat in 12/8 with a mysteriously elusive "one." "Brahim and I used to take long car trips together and listen to North African cassettes," Rivard recalls. "I'd clap along with him, but then I'd move to the wrong beat and he'd shake his head no. I had to train myself to hear the 'one' in the right spot, to really feel how the upbeats and accents worked. Once I got it, it felt like I was initiated into a secret society."
04/08/2011, Fri
Philadelphia, PA, World Cafe Live, 3025 Walnut Street
04/09/2011, Sat
Hudson, NY, Club Helsinki, 405 Columbia St.
04/10/2011, Sun
New York, NY, Le Poisson Rouge, 158 Bleeker St.
04/21/2011, Thu
Portland, ME, Port City Music Hall, 504 Congress St.
04/22/2011, Fri
Cambridge, MA, Lizard Lounge, 1667 Mass Ave.
Complete on: http://www.rockpaperscissors.biz/index.cfm/fuseaction/current.press_release/project_id/555.cfm
Club D'Elf perform at Lizard Lounge in Cambridge on September 6, 2007. This two-set show included core musicians, castmembers and guests: Brahim Fribgane (oud, perc & voice), Duke Levine (guitar), Alain Mallet (keyboards & melodica), Jerry Leake (tablas & perc), Mike Rivard (bass & sintir) & Dean Johnston (drums).
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