FRANCE – Mayotte: Debaa: Chant Des Femmes Soufies

Różni wykonawcy

C560229

THE women s voices have an uninhibited child-like quality, the call-and-response is structured but spontaneous, and you can almost smell the sea air this is an absolutely entrancing record. It was made on Mayotte in the Comoros, a cluster of Creole islands in the western Indian Ocean. The people of Mayotte have Bantu origins. They opted for integration with France in 1841, and chose to remain essentially French after independence in 1976, though there is a Muslim culture that still pervades their music. Their proximity to Madagascar has led to much musical interchange, both in instruments and rhythms and in the use of the human voice. Debaa was the family name of a 15th-century Yemeni historian whose religious poems and accounts of the Prophet s life made him celebrated in the Indian Ocean hence his name being given to the mystical song and dance based on his epic poems. The Sufi songs on this CD are above all a glorification of Allah and his saints, but their poetry is rooted in the morality of daily life. I sucked the most juicy fruit, begins one song. I was served the best part / I was my people s chosen one, granted the right to intercede for sinners / But I bring death to the unrepentant / And I will extinguish the fires of hell. Another song has a wonderfully epic sweep: The wild beasts, the very trees bowed down before him / He travelled by night, he passed the stars and the kingdoms... Ramadan and days of celebration are when these songs are sung, and the exaltation is contagious. • FOUR STARS --The Scotsman

CD

World music

Ocora

08-03-2010

794881960026