Driss El Maloumi Trio & Watar Quintet
«TAFASSIL» (Details) is my new musical work for oud, percussion and string quintet. This project is a desire, a wish and a dream that I’ve had for years. Even as a child, I was fascinated by the orchestras I heard in films:
the violins, the harmony…
«TAFASSIL» is the result of a fundamental quest for «musical ecstasy», the «tarab» – that feeling of astonishment, that aesthetic emotion, somewhere between bliss, delight and ecstasy, that one experiences while listening to music. My writing as an «oriental» musician seeks to capture the challenges of this «tarab», nourished by a powerful oral tradition.
For years, my oud and I have been thinking about integrating the chamber orchestra into our artistic approach. For years, my oud and I have thought about integrating the chamber orchestra into our artistic approach. For years, we have been overtaken by the forces of life, travelling, touring, giving concerts, recording…
Today, the «TAFASSIL» project is born. It was born after more than two years of continuous work, reflection, writing, rewriting, recording, experimentation and ongoing research into different aesthetic formulas.
While I was writing these works, I tried to observe my daily life and capture its most (in)significant details: the dawn, the morningpeople, the sounds and smells of everyday life, the mothers getting their children ready for school, the dwindling rain, and so on…
«Détails » est ma nouvelle œuvre musicale pour oud, percussions et quintet à cordes.
Ce projet est un désir, un souhait et un rêve que je porte depuis des années. Enfant déjà, j’étais fasciné par les or- chestres que j’entendais dans les films : les violons, l’harmonie…
«TAFASSIL» (Détails en arabe) résulte d’une quête fondamentale de l’«extase musicale», le «tarab» – ce sentiment d’étonnement, cette émotion esthétique, entre béatitude, délice et extase, que l’on ressent pendant l’écoute de la musique.
Mon écriture en tant que musicien « oriental » cherche à saisir les défis de ce « tarab », nourri par la puissante tradition orale. Pendant des années, mon oud et moi avons réfléchi à intégrer l’orchestre de chambre dans notre démarche artistique. Pendant des années, nous avons été dépassés par la force des choses de la vie, les voyages, les tournées, les concerts, les enregis- trements…
Aujourd’hui, le projet « TAFASSIL » est né. Il voit le jour après plus de deux ans de travail continu, de réflexion, d’écriture, de réécriture, d’enregistrement, d’expérimentation et de recherche permanente des différentes formules esthétiques.
Tandis que j’écrivais ces œuvres, j’ai tenté d’observer mon quotidien et d’en retranscrire les détails les plus (in)signifiants : l’aube, les gens du matin, les sons et les odeurs de la vie de tous les jours, les mamans qui préparent leurs enfants avant l’école, la pluie qui se raréfie…
MANAGEMENT & PRODUCTION
A coproduction
Contre-Jour
michel@contrejour.com
Zig-Zag World
poney@zigzagworld.be
Members
Driss El Maloumi – Oud
Saïd El Maloumi– Percussion
Lahoucine Baqir – Darbouka
WATAR QUINTET
Amèle Metlini – First Violin
Sivia Bazantova – Second Violin
Marie Ghitta – Alto
Annemie Osborne – Cello
Adrien Tyberghein – Double Bass
Javier Blanco – Orchestral arrangements
Biography of Driss El Maloumi
The press has already praised the quality, purity and delicacy of his music and playing style, calling him a «magician of the oud».
Born in 1970 in Agadir, Morocco, Driss El Maloumi is a musician renowned for his talent and virtuosity. He is probably one of the most sought-after oud players of his generation, with his assertive and delicate technique and the depth that characterises this major instrument of Arab-Andalusian music.
After having obtained a degree in Arabic literature in 1983 and having studied a philosophical approach to music in a thesis, Form and Content in the Artistic Discourse, Driss El Maloumi followed in parallel a solid training in classical Arabic and Western music. He was subsequently awarded at the national examination of the oud the First Prize of the Oud, the First Prize of Improvement and the Prize of Honour at the National Conservatory of Music in Rabat in 1992, 1993 and 1994.
Since 2010, he is director of the Conservatory of Music in Agadir.
While Driss El Maloumi knows and interprets traditional Berber music to perfection, his work is furthermore enriched by encounters with artists of inter- national fame such as Jordi Saval & the Ensemble Hesperion XXI (Spain), and Montserrat Figueras (Spain), with whom he has collaborated on several albums, Pierre Hamon (France), Keyvan Chemirani (Iran), Françoise Atlan (France), Debashish Bhattacharya (India), Omar Bachir (Iraq), Prabhu Edouard (India), Carlo Rizzo (Italy) in ancient, traditional or classical music as well as Paolo Fresu (Italy), Claude Tchamitchian (Armenia), Paf Trio (Italy), Daniel Mille (France) and Xavi Maureta (Spain) in jazz.
He has written and participated in the composition of stage music for numerous shows such as Isabel I, Reina de Castilla (musical direction: Jordi Savall), L’Amour Sorcier by Manuel de Fallã (direction: Antoine Bourseiller), Caravane de Lune (musical direction: Gérard Kurdjian) and Oiseau de Lune (direction: Antoine Bourseiller).
Not to forget the music for films such as La Source des Femmes (directed by Radu Miahileanu) or Le Maroc vu du Ciel (directed by Yann-Arthus Bertrand).
Driss El Maloumi also plays alongside great poets such as Abdellatif Laâbi (Morocco) & Adonis (Syria).
In 2000 he recorded the jazz album Tawada, which he has co-written with Alban Darche (4 stars in Jazz Magazine), 3MA with Ballaké Sissoko and Rajery, named best World Music album at the European Charts 2008, Makan in 2014 («Masterpiece!», according to the French magazine Les Inrockuptibles) and Anarouz in 2017, again together with Ballaké Sissoko and Rajery.
Driss El Maloumi has also participated in a number of remarkable projects such as Françoise Atlan’s 1998 album Noches, which won a Choc du Monde de la Musique, or Laurent Voulzy’s Lys & Love, in 2011.
Complete biographies of the members of the Trio, the WAKA Quintet and the arranger
You can access all the biographies by clicking on the E.P.K. link, i.e. :
In English: https://bit.ly/3S8CjXx
In French: https://bit.ly/3TNnBGI