Night in the medina 1

Dar Mokri – 20h00 and 22h00
Mahsa & Marjan Vahdat - Iran

Mystical poetry with Pasha Hanjani - ney flute

Sisters Mahsa and Marjan Vahdat reflect the current evolution of Persian song.  
They are of a new generation of musicians, university-educated and completely devoted to their artistic cause. They express the continuation of a tradition that faces problems of identity in today's Iran.
We can see in miniatures and old paintings how women were part of musical life both at court and in public life right up to the revival of art music in the 1850s.

Beyond the free song known as  âvâz, more the preserve of men and used for classical poems, the  tasnif is a range of songs composed around specific verses and is sung by both men and women.

Persian music has the capacity to renew itself constantly, a phenomenon unique to the East. As well as having a history of pure transmission, it also has authenticity of emotion. As a result of its mystical heritage, it is able to retain a feeling of nobility and depth of being that could be called oriental, chivalrous and melancholic romanticism.

This heritage is wonderfully portrayed by Mahsa and Marjan Vahdat. The two sisters, who decided to perform together, proudly and graciously take Persian poetry to new heights.

Their voices soar and intertwine like a veritable modal labyrinth. The ney flute (literally reed) is a classical long flute that embodies the mystical breath of the dervish and Sufi, reflects the spiritual inspiration of this music, and follows the soaring voices as though searching for the sighing of the wind invoked by the great Iranian poetess Forugh Farrokhzad (1935-67).
 

Dar Adiyel 21h00 and 22h30

Ihsan Rmiki – Morocco 

The Art of the Mouwachahates of al Andalus

A great Moroccan traditional singer always performs Sama'a and Madîh, that place where souls gather to seek ecstasy. Ihsan Rmiki owes her musical knowledge to the teachings she received at the Conservatoires of El Qasr Al Kabir in the north of Morocco and in Marrakech.
Ihsan Rmiki has a great love for singing the Mouwachahates of al Andalus, this prestigious Arab musicial tradition that evokes the mythical cities of the Orient: Aleppo, Damascus and Cairo. Her inspiration is fed by the bustân, the interior garden that is the symbol of Arab-Andalusian civilisation. 
In Morocco, the garden has a secular history dating from the 12th century and has its origin in the Persian Islamic tradition. The Arab-Andalusian garden is both sensual and mystical, often jealously guarded by ramparts that cut out the noise of the world outside and shade it from the harsh sun. It seems to echo a vision of paradise.

In the little lanes of Ksar el Kebir was the riad that was my childhood home, where all my passions grew. There were orange trees around the central fountain, jasmine perfumed the pathways, taming the sunbeams and wandering birds. I remember all those mornings ... their songs marking the beginning of my days, I pushed open the huge wooden door carved with arabesques and walked into the middle of all this. It is in these little moments of poetry that the songs I sing today find their  voice. At the same time, my passion for song is shaped. 'Undor ila al-boustan ma baina tawbin akhdarin', extract from the Nouba Al Maya. At home now, in each corner, I reconstruct my colours, my aromas, and my reference points from another time through flowers. I observe them, I watch them living ...'

Batha Museum – 21h00

Mory Djely Kouyaté and Jean-Philippe Rykiel -  France/Guinea
Tinkiso

Put a voice and a piano together, and you get one of the most beautiful marriages in Africa. The Guinean storyteller, Mory Djely Kouyaté and Jean-Philippe Rykiel explore the deep emotions of the African soul in a pared-down, harmonious manner.

All along the Guinean river Tinkisso there's an exceptional Guinean voice producing jazz and gospel with pianist Jean-Philippe Rykiel in the Manding lands. Jean-Philippe Rykiel, an African pianist by adoption, is as adept at electronic explorations as Pierre Henry and at bebop as Thelonious Monk. He has played with Lokua Kanza, Salif Keita, Papa Wemba, Youssou N’Dour and the  Super Rail Band.  Mory Djely Kouyaté is a Manding griot from Conakry, who has a deep voice, low-pitched and broken with emotion. Such an intense voice seems to carry within it Africa confronted with dramatic natural forces and with the suffering of the exodus.  Jean-Philippe Rykiel who plays in a classical way that is both intelligent and melodic, amplifies this nostalgic and agonising emotion that seems to sum up the entire history of African and Western music.