Soul Of The Mahgreb

A beautiful recital called Maroc : L'Ame Dansee ( Morocco : The Dancing Soul ) by master oud player Driss El Maloumi. Am album of only oud and percussion support might sound hard to take but there is soul, variety and wordless story telling of great quality. El Maloumi demonstrates both the Arab and Berber styles of oud playing, the arab style perhaps more familiar and linked to the vanished Andalucian connection but the traditional country folk forms of the Berber style being equally compelling. They both have a prediction for formal suite like developments and music as poetry art forms. The playing here bends notes and uses differing techniques to change the sound in the same way that modern electric pedal effects or old time blues slides would do but while the music is clearly soulful, I'll avoid those blues comparisons. The varied numbers are concerned with topics such as meditation, the passage of the moon, memories, childhood, history and rhythmic patterns that percussionist Lahoucine Baquir elucidates expertly. Musique du Monde without any hype or compromise.