Adorcist & Post-Industrial ritual
Spirits, Possession & Trance
Senegal
ndox électrique
“This path is not for purists, but an exiciting new style is forged.”
★★★★★ SONGLINES (UK)
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.
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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.
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To cast out the demons during a n'döep ceremonie, 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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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. An album released by Bongo Joe Records (BJR 089). A blast from the Putan Club.
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Ndox Electrique - Electric Water
Order
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2025
14/03 - La Presqu'Île, Smac 07, Annonay [F]
15/03 - Noumatrouff, Mulhouse [F]
05/04 - LaPéniche, Chalon sur Saône [F]
2024
18/05/2024 - Moers Festival, [D]
24/05 - Močvara, Zagreb [HR]
26/05 - Druga Godba Festival, Ljubljana [SLO]
31/05 - Kilbi Festival, Düdingen [CH]
10/07 - Pod'Ring Festival, Biel [CH]
12/07 - Pohoda Festival, Trencin [SK]
28/07 - WOMAD Festival, Malmesbury [UK]
01/08 - Urkult Festival, Näsåker [S]
23/08 - TrutnOFF Open Air Festival, Trutnov [CZ]
10/09 - L'Etrange Festival, Paris [F]
17/10 - Magazzino sul Po - Murazzi, Torino [I]
18/10 - Biko, Milano [I]
19/10 - Notte delle Voci, 77° Festival Ciclo di Spettacoli Classici, Vicenza [I]
20/10 - H/earthbeat Festival, Firenze [I]
07/11 - Le Laü, Pau [F]
08/11 - Le Métronum, Toulouse [F]
21/11 - Espace Django, Strasbourg [F]
22/11 - Motown, Brussels [B]
23/11 - Gueulard +, Nilvange [F]
03/12 - Les Mardis du Grand Marais, Riorges [F]
12/12 - Le Coquelicot, Fougères [F]
13/12 - Hydrophone, Lorient [F]
14/12 - Festival No Border, Brest [F]
17/12 - Théâtre Hexagone, Meylan [F]
2023
12/11/2023 - Le Guess Who? Festival, Utrecht [NL]
07/12 - Festival Trans Musicales, Rennes [F]
The NDOX ELECTRIQUE collective
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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
Maimouna Diao : choir & dance
Ismaïla Sall : vocal & sabars
Cheikh Ma Djimbira "N'digueul" Ndiaye : nder, mbëng-mbëng, thiol, tama & choir
Aida Touré : sabar & choir
Awa Mbodji : vocal
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
Alessandro Maffei : Sound-engineer (live)
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All musicians & singers are contemporary based in Senegal & Europe.
Gianna Greco & François R. Cambuzat play on guitars specially built for far-away journeys by Mattia Maglio.
NDOX ELECTRIQUE
Tëdd ak Mame Coumba Lamba ak Mame Coumba Mbang
Bongo Joe Records 089, cd & LP
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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
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Bongo Joe Records is distributed by 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...
Listen/Watch Extracts
Live at Le Guess Who? Festival
L'Etrange Festival in trance 1 & 2
Two ritual endings (live)
Live Trans-Musicales, Rennes (F)
Other live extracts
Live in Ndar
Raw footages (extracts from rituals in Senegal, Cambuzat/Greco archives)
Some early n'döep field-recordings (Cambuzat/Greco archives):
- morning ritual in Guereo,
Socials
Download zone
Epk (including images)
Riders (technical & hospitality)
Management & booking
François R. Cambuzat
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Agencies (competences, no exclusivity)
France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland (French speaking), Spain, Portugal:
Wax Booking (F) & La Station Service (F)
Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway:
United Kingdom, Ireland, Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland (German & Italian speaking), Austria, Italy, Czech
Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, ex-Yugoslavia, Greece, Middle
East, North Africa:
Medias & interviews
Duncan Ballantyne (UK)
Marc Chonier (F)
Laureate of the “Villa Saint-Louis Ndar” residency program.
With the support of the French Institute of Saint-Louis in Senegal.
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Pictures: Massow Ka, Renaud de Foville & RockPix.fr
In Senegal, there is a traditional healing ceremony called n'döep. It is an adorcist ritual that treats depression. N'döep is primarily connected to the sea. It is also intensely musical and movement-based. A treated person will first see their senses overwhelmed by the immediate proximity of certain animals, buried with them under canvases, surrounded by drums (sabars) intensely played around them. The canvases will then be removed and the patient will dance and dancing at this point can be openly observed by community members. The person being treated will then interact ritually with certain spirits, certain animals because unhappiness or depression is considered to be a spirit which penetrates the sick person. The person will then sing and dance to ask these spirits to leave them, thus affirming that they will not forget them but will honor these spirits. Finally the community will dance together.
More about the n'döep:
- Treating the Spirit: An Ethnographic Portrait of Senegalese Animist Mental Health Practices and Practitioners in Dakar and the Surrounding Area - Caitlin McKinley
- Le N'döep - Transe thérapeutique chez les Lébous du Sénégal - Omar Ndoye
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
Research & creation supported by the Villa Saint-Louis Ndar and the French Institute in Senegal.
