Adorcist & Post-Industrial ritual.
Spirits, Possession & Trance.
Senegal.
Ndox Electrique is a ritual of possession coming from the n’döep ceremonies in Senegal.
It’s wild, it’s dark and solar, it's feminine and powerful, groovingly calling the spirits
to heal the modern world with traditionnal incantations, dances & percussions,
electric guitars & computers. On stage, healing mistresses & musicians make a pact
with the Spirits : it takes much more than good intentions but dancing sweat
and a consistent volume to achieve salvation through music & trance.
World music in the West is most often formatted & presented as fancy & innocent
postcards: the sun, the dunes, the smiles, the welcome, the attaya or the ceebu jën
offered to the lovely toubabs, etc. However the music of the cruel, wild, frenzied,
real and even bloodthirsty worlds betrays that neo-colonialist postcard presentation.
To cast out the demons during a n'döep ceremonie among the Lebous
of Senegal, it will take music & songs of a huge volume to reach the elevation
of the trance, and sweat & blood to sanctify the action and to satisfy the spirits.
Rituals of incredible loudness and musical violence for a spirituality
coupled with a magnificent and imperious social role during liturgies
where Western griots like Meshuggah or The Birthday Party
would only be considered as well-educated choir boys.
(The volume of N'döep is so huge that its singers nowadays
use megaphones.)
People around the world have always felt the need to transcend
their fears of life and death, to rise above their misfortunes and terrors.
Now it’s about time to destroy, immolate your own music and annihilate
your cultural influences by the power of other songs, melodies, chants, other rhythms, other sweats of trance and elevation.
Breaking everything in turn, then reshaping the materials, respectfully iconoclastic to become what music really is when it is no longer commercial: a wind, little or nothing but a wild and cathartic emotion.
Still working from years with Ifriqiyya Electrique, François R. Cambuzat and Gianna Greco (from the seminal Putan Club) could not find out where the North African adorcist communities, such banga, stambeli, diwân or gnawa, came from. Of the Arab-Muslim slave route, that was certain, but from which country, from which region? The traces seemed lost. Research after research, little by little this five-century-old road led them to West Africa, Senegal and the Lebu's n'döep. For months in Mbour, Guereo, Rufisque, Yoff and Ndar (Saint-Louis), François R. Cambuzat and Gianna Greco got lost among the seas and banks of Senegal, sacrificing to spirits -most often aquatic- ndox, water, in the Wolof language.
Tëdd ak Mame Coumba Lamba ak Mame Coumba Mbang: lying between Mame Coumba Lamba and Mame Coumba Mbang, the female geniuses of a tiny part of a huge continent. And so the title of the futur album, to be released by Bongo Joe Records on the 3rd of November 2023 (BJR 089).
Order
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First rituals in the West:
12/11 - LE GUESS WHO? Festival, Utrecht [NL]
07/12 - Festival TRANS MUSICALES, Rennes [F]
First Western tour: June-December 2024
ndox électrique
NDOX ELECTRIQUE (pronunciation)
Tëdd ak Mame Coumba Lamba ak Mame Coumba Mbang
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Distribution: Force Exposure (USA), L’Autre Distribution (F), Indigo (D & A),
Irascible (CH & A), K7 (UK, D, Worldwide), Bongo Joe Records (CH, I, GR, J).,
MGM (aka the groove merchants) (AUS), V2, Rush Hour...
01 - Jamm Yé Matagu Yalla (04:19)
02 - Lëk Ndau Mbay (03:55)
03 - Ngor Diouf Ya Demon (05:11)
04 - He Yay Naliné (02:40)
05 - Indi Mewmi (06:22)
06 - Yaré Rirewé Bakora Ndoye (01:11)
07 - Ngor Diouf Né Du Wallé (04:09)
08 - Sam Sa Nga Mboro (06:43)
09 - Wali Namalé (03:42)
10 - Sango Mara Riré (04:58)
Total length: 43:13
Order
Ask for the private audio link
Videos (releasing on the 12/09/2023)
Raw footages (extracts from rituals in Senegal)
Riders (technical & hospitality)
Ndox Electrique collective :
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Awa Mbodji : vocal
Ndeye Coumba Mbaye Kebe : vocal
Oumar Ngom : nder, mbëng-mbëng, thiol, tama & choir
Mouhamet "Sangue" Sambe : nder, mbëng-mbëng, thiol, tama & choir
Mamadou "Pape" Ngom : nder, mbëng-mbëng, thiol, tama & choir
Cheikh Ma Djimbira "N'digueul" Ndiaye : nder, mbëng-mbëng, thiol, tama & choir
Aida Touré : sabar & choir
Rokhaya “Madame” Diène : vocal
Adjaratou "Oumou" Diène : choir
Mar Faye : mbëng-mbëng
Ndiaga Mboup : tunguné & tama
Abdou Seck : thiol & talmbath
Gianna Greco : bass, choir, computer & videos
François R. Cambuzat : guitars, choir, computer & videos
Choir of the “Fanal de la langue de Barbarie”:
Rokhaya Mbaye
Gamou Dieng
Fatou Aladji Mbaye
Ousmane Ba: Fulani flute tambing.
Abdoulaye Ndiaye “Pape Laye”: n’döepkat & spiritual guidance, master healer and guardian of the temple of Rufisque.
All musicians & singers are contemporary based in Senegal & in France.
Recorded by Moussa Niang, François R. Cambuzat & Gianna Greco at Institut français de Saint-Louis du Sénégal, november 2020.
Mixed by François R. Cambuzat on the banks of the Senegal river, January 2021.
Mastering : Gregor Zemljic, Ljubljana, SLO
Video editing : Carlo Mazzotta, Copertino, I
Ethics & politics guidance : Victor Faye
Sound engineer : Moussa Niang
Opening of the doors of N’döep : Adama Samba Diop
Fonio, niébé, ceebu jën and a thousand others : Maryème Soda, Chez Dasso, Ndar
Special thanks to Marc Monsallier. Charm, love, respect & modern spirituality.
Gianna Greco & François R. Cambuzat play on guitars specially built for far-away journeys by Mattia Maglio.
Some early N’döep field-recordings from our archives:
- morning ritual in Guereo,
Photos: Massow Ka & Renaud de Foville.
Laureate of the “Villa Saint-Louis Ndar” residency program.
With the support of the French Institute of Saint-Louis in Senegal.
Contacts
Ndox Electrique : François R. Cambuzat
Telephone: +33 (0)6 69 06 57 21
Booking:
France & more : Sylvain Dartoy, WAX Booking
Northern Europe : Marisa Segala, Second to the Left
More about the n'döep: Omar Ndoye, Transe thérapeutique chez les Lébous du Sénégal, L'Harmattan, F
Pictures from the N'döep in Senegal
François R. Cambuzat & Gianna Greco - Archives
Pape Laye, master healer and guardian of the temple of Rufisque
François R. Cambuzat & Gianna Greco
Day maték, dou maté
boul dougal sa lokho.
If it bites or does not bite, in any case do not put your hand in it.
Research & creation supported by the Villa Saint-Louis Ndar and the French Institute in Senegal.