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,

- N’döep songs in Bargny.

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