Adorcist & Post-Industrial ritual.
Spirits, Possession & Trance.
Senegal.
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 make a pact or cast out the demons as during the N'döep ceremonies
among the Lebous of Senegal, it will take much more than good intentions
but a huge volume to reach the elevation of the trance and it will take sweat
and blood to sanctify the action and to satisfy the spirits. Ceremonies of incredible
loudness and musical violence for a spirituality coupled with a magnificent
and imperious social role during rituals 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 could not find out where
the North African adorcist communities, such Banga, Stambeli, Diwan, 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 Lebous 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, released by Bongo Joe Records in November 2023.
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 (Wolof proverb).
NDOX ELECTRIQUE
Tëdd ak Mame Coumba Lamba ak Mame Coumba Mbang
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
Audio extracts
Film
Video-clips
Live videos
Epk
Riders & technique
Rokhaya “Madame” Diène : lead vocal
Adjaratou "Oumou" Diène : choir
Mar Faye : mbëng-mbëng drums
Ndiaga Mboup : tunguné & tama drums
Abdou Seck : thiol & talmbath drums
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
Winners 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
France : Sylvain Dartoy, WAX Booking
Northern Europe : Marisa Segala, Second to the Left
ndox électrique
Pictures from the N'döep in Senegal
François R. Cambuzat & Gianna Greco - Archives
Pape Laye, master healer and guardian of the temple of Rufisque
Photos: 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.