other titles...

Fleuves de l'ame
  1. Souffles du Nil
  2. Namami Gange (Obéissance au Gange)
  3. Envol du Mékong
  4. Appel Du Danube
  5. Baisers Amers de l’Euphrate
  6. Les Cloches de Yamuna
  7. Echos de Medjerda
  8. Cheminement du Tigre

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  • Gatefold sleeve
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Houeida Hedfi

Fleuves de l'ame

PHANTASY SOUND
  • 2lp

    Released: 19th Nov 2021

    £22.99
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Otherwordly, magical & cinematic with a twist of menace - you can feel yourself dissolve into her spacious, percussive sound.

The Paris-based Tunisan multi-instrumentalist’s debut album is an elegant marriage of traditional folk music & contemporary sound design.

Otherwordly, magical & cinematic with a twist of menace - you can feel yourself dissolve into her spacious, percussive sound. ‘Fleuves de l'Ame’ (which beautifully translates as ‘Rivers Of The Soul‘) is the debut album from the Paris-based Tunisan multi-instrumentalist Houeida Hedfi, produced with Olof Dreijer of The Knife / Oni Ayhun. Drawing references from Hedfi's drumming expertise, the textures of Tunisian music & a broad array of global genres, her debut album is an elegant marriage of traditional folk music & contemporary sound design. It is quite deliciously mesmerising!

The quarter tones & instrumentation characteristic of Arabic music reshape familiar neo-classical soundscapes with twinkling glockenspiel, lucid strings & classical piano skilfully interwoven for a set of startlingly emotive compositions.

Originally a percussionist, Hedfi first met Olof Dreijer (the knife) when he visited Tunisia and produced her contribution to a 2011 compilation of female Tunisian artists. This kindled a nine-year collaboration which culminates in Fleuves de l'Âme , an elegant marriage of traditional folk music and contemporary sound design drawing references from Hedfi’s drumming expertise and the textures of Tunisian music alongside a startlingly broad array of global genres.

Hedfi came to music late, getting her first drum kit aged 27 when she was already established as an academic in the field of economics / mathematics. Alongside teaching she toured playing a contemporary spin on stambeli, a genre of Afro-Arab sufi trance music heavy on rhythms. “I loved it,” she recalls, “but I had this need for melody. There was no room for that within our group, so I realised I had to start my own project.” She enlisted the help of Tunisian violin player Radhi Chaouali and Palestinian bouzouk player Jalal Nader and began rehearshals. Over nine years of travel between Tunisia, France, and Dreijer’s Berlin studio, Hedfi refined each composition with a perfectionist’s ear and found a home in melody.

During composition it was essential to Hedfi that the songs contained the quarter tones characteristic of Tunisian/Arabic music. “I wanted it to sound like me. In my mind, if you delete these quarter tones, it’s like deleting all the verbs from a sentence.” While her musical influences are not limited to Tunisia, she still views her album as a modern take on Tunisian music. “It’s not just Tunisian,” she adds, “it’s also made by a woman. That makes a difference. My music doesn’t take up so much space, it has nuance. If I had to put a nationality to my music, I would also put a gender to it.”

Each track is named for a different river, referencing both the safety found in the sound of water and the sinuous drama of each composition, which often starts peacefully, before evolving to encompass drama and tension, conflict and resolution.