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Amina Alaoui: Arco Iris
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Label: |
ECM Records |
| Released: |
2011.06.20 |
Time:
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67:13
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| Category: |
World Music
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| Producer(s): |
Manfred Eicher |
| Rating: |
*******... (7/10) |
| Media type: |
CD
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| Web address: |
www.ecmrecords.com
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| Appears with: |
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| Purchase date: |
2012 |
| Price in €: |
14,90 |
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[1] Hado [Fate] (Traditional) - 1:50
[2] Búscate en Mí [Seek Yourself Within Me] (Amina Alaoui/Saint Teresa of Avila) - 6:31
[3] Fado Al-Mu'tamid (Al-Mu'tamid Ibn Abbad/Amina Alaoui) - 5:30
[4] Flor de Nieve [Sunflower] (Al-Mu'tamid Ibn Abbad/Amina Alaoui= - 4:07
[5] Oh Andaluces [Oh Andalusians] (Amina Alaoui/Ibrahim Ibn Khafaja) - 6:55
[6] Ya Laylo Layl (Amina Alaoui/Ibn Zaydûn De Córdoba) - 9:18
[7] Fado Menor [Fadio in Minor] (António De Sousa Freitas/Traditional) - 5:26
[8] Búscate en Mí, Var. (Amina Alaoui/Saint Teresa of Avila) - 5:32
[9] Moradía (Eduardo Miranda/José Luis Montón/Sofiane Negra) - 3:59
[10] Las Morillas de Jaén [Moorish Girls of Jaén] (Amina Alaoui) - 7:05
[11] Que Faré [What Shall I Do?] (Amina Alaoui) - 4:26
[12] Arco Iris [Rainbow] (Amina Alaoui/Teófilo Chantre) - 6:34
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r t i s t s , P e r s o n n e l |
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Amina Alaoui - Arranger, Composer, Daf, Liner Notes, Lyricist, Vocals
Saïf Alah Ben Abderrazak - Violin
Eduardo Miranda - Composer, Mandolin
José Luis Montón - Arranger, Composer, Flamenco Guitar
Sofiane Negra - Composer, Oud
Idriss Agnel - Arranger, Electric Guitar, Percussion
Manfred Eicher - Producer
Stefano Amerio - Engineer
Tyler Fisher - Translation
Sascha Kleis - Cover Design
George Miller - Translation
Akwa Betote - Photography
Daniel Vass - Photography
Alejandro Torres - Cover Photo
Teófilo Chantre - Composer
Al-Mu'tamid Ibn Abbad - Composer, Lyricist
Ibn Zaydûn De Córdoba - Composer, Lyricist
António De Sousa Freitas - Composer, Lyricist
Ibrahim Ibn Khafaja - Composer, Lyricist
Saint Teresa of Avila - Composer, Lyricist
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o m m e n t s , N o t e s |
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2011 CD ECM 2763758
2011 CD ECM 2180
Arco Iris is an album by singer
Amina Alaoui. The album, Alaoui's first work for ECM, is focused on
singing and features light string accompaniment along with sparse
percussion. It was recorded in April 2010 in Lugano and released in
2011. The New York Times termed the recording as a fusion of different
traditions to form her own Iberian Penisula. It cited her incorporating
musical traditions of Portuguese fado, Spanish flamenco, and Persian and
Arab-Andalusian classical music.
Amina Alaoui is a vocalist, pianist, and composer steeped in the history
of Andalusian music, the fusion of Arab, Spanish, Persian, and
Portuguese styles that evolved in the courts of Moorish Spain in the
ninth century. Her intent, stated poetically in the album's liner notes,
is to use the fusion of styles that flourished centuries ago as the
foundation for a modern music without boundaries. Arco Iris translates
as rainbow, a metaphor for the way the musics of the Iberian Peninsula
and Northern Africa blend into and color each other. Alaoui, and the
five musicians that accompany her, produce a powerful, contemplative
sound that stirs deep feeing with its deliberate tempos and intricate
instrumental work. Still, the main focus remains Alaoui's soulful,
passionate vocals. They take up an immense emotional space, reminding
listeners of the limited range of most pop music. The record opens with
"Hado" (Fate), a chilling solo performance that shows Alaoui's vocal
range and masterful control as she slides up and down the scale adding
ornamentations to her vocal lines. "Búscate en Mí" (Seek Yourself Within
Me) is a poem by Saint Teresa of Avila set to Alaoui's music. The
solemn instrumental work of violinist Saïfalla Ben Abderrazak and oud
player Sofiane Negra set the stage for Alaoui's understated vocal. "Fado
Al-Mu'tamid" and "Fado Al-Mu'tamid" feature the mandolin of Eduardo
Miranda, who adds a Brazilian lilt to his accompaniment that lets Alaoui
dig deep into the melancholy of the songs. "Oh Andaluces" (Oh
Andalusians) may be the most emotional song on the record, featuring
Alaoui's stunningly emotional vocals accompanied only by José Luis
Montón's smoldering flamenco guitar. With the exception of "Las Morillas
de Jaén" (Moorish Girls of Jaén), a midtempo tune marked by Montón's
dramatic flamenco guitar and Idriss Agnel's inventive percussion
accents, and the driving Andalusian workout of "Ya Laylo Layl," the
tunes here are taken at a measured tempo that serves to accent their
emotional weight.
j. poet - All Music Guide
Following her outstanding performance in collaborative work with Jon
Balke and Jon Hassell on the Siwan recording of 2007/8, here the
magnificent Moroccan singer Amina Alaoui presents her own
border-transcending project, Arco Iris, an emotionally-powerful,
musically-dazzling album, at once approachable and profound. She is
superbly accompanied by her outstanding ensemble in which violin often
echoes the voice and oud, flamenco guitar and sparkling mandolin
surround it.
Born in Fez and originally schooled in the Moroccan Gharnati tradition,
Amina continues to research connections between the musics of Spain,
Portugal, and North Africa. Much of the research takes place in and
around the music. She is a scholar of a note and a poet, but firstly she
is an impassioned performer. When Alaoui sings there is, as she
observes, “no need to discuss the origins of fado, flamenco or Al
Andalusi” for the music itself explores the common crucible of these
styles, and Amina’s delivery makes the interconnections impossible to
miss. And in the tradition of the greatest singers, she enters the texts
- some of them a thousand years old – and makes them new.
Hers is a truly international ensemble. Violinist Saïfallah Ben
Abderrazak and oud player Sofiane Negra are from Tunisia. Guitarist José
Luis Montón from Barcelona has a strong following amongst flamenco
adherents worldwide. Mandolinist Eduardo Miranda was born in Brazil, has
lived the last two decades in Portugal, and links choro and fado styles
through a vocabulary influenced by jazz. The group’s youngest member,
Idriss Agnel, son of Amina Alaoui, studied music at Maîtrise Notre Dame
de Paris from the age of seven. He is meanwhile renowned as a
multi-instrumentalist, contributing here deft percussion and (on one
track) electric guitar.
“This music
transcribes an Iberian peninsula carried towards a dialogue with the
potential of what might be. It is a poetic geography that entertains the
dream of the impossible: human horizons that transcend borders, lyrical
Mediterranean idioms that are open to the universe and the intelligence
of being, of mutual communication. Song and music explore this
possibility in order to open up another path: original expression.”
Amina Alaoui.
Following her outstanding ECM debut performance as the lyrical voice of
Jon Balke’s “Siwan” recording of 2007/8, Amina Alaoui explores a rainbow
of musical possibilities on her own “Arco Iris”. It is an emotionally
powerful album that soars through related idioms. This time, says Alaoui
in her liner notes, there is “no need to discuss the origins of fado,
flamenco or Al Andalusi” for the music itself investigates the common
crucible of the styles:
Amina’s delivery, and the performances of her superb ensemble, make the interconnections of the genres self-evident.
Yet as she also points out, “you must first have assimilated your own
roots, in order to absorb the culture of the other...” Historical
awareness, study and discernment are essential but more is needed: “I am
an artist of the present. I abstain from simply copying the styles of
the past.”
The songs are from many sources, and the texts and some of the melodies
span a thousand years. Amina sets mystic poems by St. Teresa of Avila
and by 11th century king of Seville Al Mutamid Ibn Abbad, and nature
poetry of Ibn Khafaja. There is 20th century fado from the pen of
Antonio de Sousa Freitas and the well-known 15th century text “Las
Morillas de Jaén” which Amina puts to her own music.
Singer, composer, poet and scholar of distinction, Amina Alaoui
was born in Fez and originally schooled in the Moroccan Gharnati
tradition, which remains a central reference in her work. She also
studied European classical music from childhood onwards. While based in
Paris in the mid-1980s she explored medieval chant with Henri Agnel and
Persian song with Djallal Akhbari, interested, as ever, in the points of
contact between the traditions. Alaoui has been the recipient of many
awards including the Algerian Prix d’Interprétation du festival de
Musique Arabo-andalouse d’Oran, Morocco’s Prix d’Excellence au Festrival
Ghanati d’Oijda, and the Cairo Opera’s Prix d’Honneur du Festival de
Musique Classique Arabe. She is also a laureate of the Villa Medicis
Hors les Murs where her musicological research into the confluence of
musical streams led ultimately to the work that has become “Arco Iris”.
On this disc, recorded in April 2010 in the recital room of Lugano’s Audiorium RSI, with Manfred Eicher producing, Amina is flanked by her truly international ensemble: violinist Saïfallah Ben Abderrazak and oud player Sofiane Negra
are from Tunisia: Negra has played with Alaoui for many years and has
much experience also of cross-cultural collaboration – working, for
instance, with flamenco singer Ines Bacan and with many jazz players.
Abderrazak’s interesting resumé includes work as a physicist
specializing in acoustics and sound principles as well as membership of
the Symphonic Orchestra of Tunis. Guitarist José Luis Montón
from Barcelona has a following amongst flamenco adherents worldwide
(and an ECM solo album of his own is in preparation). Mandolinist Eduardo Miranda
was born in Brazil, has lived the last two decades in Portugal, and
links choro and fado styles through a vocabulary influenced by jazz.
The group’s youngest member, Idriss Agnel,
son of Amina Alaoui, studied music at Maîtrise Notre Dame de Paris from
the age of seven. He is meanwhile renowned as a multi-instrumentalist,
contributing here deft percussion and (on one track) electric guitar.
The sparkling interchanges between the instrumentalists and the rapport
of each of them with Alaoui make for exciting listening throughout “Arco
Iris”.
ECM Records
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