Moroccan Spirit CD

From Claus Zundel, the producer behind the Sacred Spirit and B-Tribe projects, comes this fusion of traditional Moroccan music with downtempo club beats. (Zundel lives in Ibiza, Spain, but calls himself Fearsome Brave when he is recording Native American music on the Sacred Spirit albums.) The first track sounds like a club remix of Peter Gabriel's Passion, and maintains some of the atmospherics achieved by that album. Although the musicianship is at a lower level, Moroccan Spirit has a soothing, hypnotic sound. ~ Stacia Proefrock

From Claus Zundel, the producer behind the Sacred Spirit and B-Tribe projects, comes this fusion of traditional Moroccan music with downtempo club beats. It is probably foolish to expect integrity and authenticity from a person who lives in Ibiza, Spain, yet insists on calling himself Fearsome Brave when he is recording Native American music (on the Sacred Spirit albums), but despite its soothing, hypnotic sound, this album just seems like a pale, flaccid copy of better ones that have come before. The first track sounds like a club remix of Peter Gabriel's Passion, and while it maintains some of the atmospherics achieved by that album, the musicianship is at a much lower level. Zundel claims to have spent five years wandering the desert collecting this music, yet the recordings were all done in urban Moroccan studios and he had issued B-Tribe albums on a steady schedule for the seven years preceding this album's release. Sacred Spirit at least seemed like a labor of love for him and B-Tribe was smooth and stylish, but this just seems like opportunistic cultural imperialism and not much else. ~ Stacia Proefrock

Includes liner notes by Mark Thorpe.

Personnel: Nadja "Ishran" Grapi, Brasim Dahouz, Stéphane Slaoui (vocals); Erik "Magic Strings" Plumettaz (strings).

Liner Note Author: Mark Thorpe.

Recording information: Abbesym Musique, Casablanca, Morocco (1997-2001); Idou Studio, Casablanca, Morocco (1997-2001).

Arranger: Brave .