{"id":41121,"date":"2019-12-12T12:11:34","date_gmt":"2019-12-12T11:11:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/transmusicales-an-entranced-festival-experience\/"},"modified":"2020-05-04T22:25:35","modified_gmt":"2020-05-04T21:25:35","slug":"transmusicales-an-entranced-festival-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/transmusicales-an-entranced-festival-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"Transmusicales: an entranced festival experience"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-34125 pam-featured-content\"  src=\"https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/8b026766-chouk-bwa-the-angstrocc88mers_nicolas-joubard-2229.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/8b026766-chouk-bwa-the-angstrocc88mers_nicolas-joubard-2229.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/8b026766-chouk-bwa-the-angstrocc88mers_nicolas-joubard-2229-759x506.jpg 759w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/8b026766-chouk-bwa-the-angstrocc88mers_nicolas-joubard-2229-1010x673.jpg 1010w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/8b026766-chouk-bwa-the-angstrocc88mers_nicolas-joubard-2229-1440x960.jpg 1440w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/8b026766-chouk-bwa-the-angstrocc88mers_nicolas-joubard-2229-661x441.jpg 661w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/8b026766-chouk-bwa-the-angstrocc88mers_nicolas-joubard-2229-465x310.jpg 465w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/8b026766-chouk-bwa-the-angstrocc88mers_nicolas-joubard-2229-375x250.jpg 375w\" sizes=\"(min-width:1010px) 759px,100vw\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/p>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #185aa6;\"><b>At the Transmusicales festival, \u201ctrance\u201d is not just a word in its name. PAM accompanied artists at the festival whose music is closely linked to a phenomenon ethnomusicologist Gilbert Rouget dedicated a reference book to, <\/b><em>Music and Trance<\/em><\/span><span style=\"color: #127db5;\"><b><span style=\"color: #185aa6;\">. It became an intense experience.<\/span><i><br \/>\n<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/h4>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><em><span style=\"color: #999999;\">Photo : Chouk Bwa &amp; the \u00c5ngstromers \u00a9 Trans Musicales \/ Nicolas Joubard<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cAre you going to Trans\u2019 this year?\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Rennes-based yearly festival may no longer be an insider\u2019s secret \u2013\u00a056,000 people attended the 41st edition\u00a0\u2013 yet the event has maintained an intimate relationship with its audience to honour its nickname.<span style=\"color: #333333;\"> \u201c<a style=\"color: #333333;\" href=\"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/trans-musicales-festival-2019\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Trans<\/a>&#8216;\u201d<\/span> creates the promise of reunion and (re)discovery, with its 84 acts with origins from as many different universes. The Breton festival continues to embody the concept of \u201ctransmusicality\u201d by once again offering a highly eclectic lineup where genres, disciplines and boundaries \u2013\u00a0are all far from set. While the festival ended with Sylvie Kreusch\u2019s totally hallucinating tribal pop, Acid Arab\u2019s techno-ra\u00ef and DJ Coco Em\u2019s hot Nairobi house, the five-day gathering generated, as always, numerous altered states of consciousness.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">From Siberia to Brazil, from Ethiopian z\u0101r to Benin voodoo, ethnomusicologist Gilbert Rouget identified several main types of trance in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Music and Trance<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (University of Chicago Press, 1985; French original version: Gallimard, 1980): that arise from shamanism, possession, and communion. Their mechanism, function and relation to music differ according to the peoples and regions of the world, however all trances are defined as altered states of consciousness <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cthat are obtained by means of noise, agitation and in the presence of others&#8221;<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. And although songs, dances and drums are the common denominator of most \u201croot\u201d trances, it\u2019s impossible to ignore their somewhat \u201cprofane\u201d transmutations in the wide range of modern music \u2013\u00a0techno, first and foremost. Intrigued by the inexhaustible energy of sweaty bodies on the Breton dancefloor, PAM experienced Trans&#8217; through the prism of trance. It got Intense.<\/span><\/p>\n<h6><span style=\"color: #127db5;\"><b><br \/>\n<\/b><\/span><span style=\"color: #185aa6;\"><b>Chouk Bwa &amp; The \u00c5ngstromers\u2019 possession trance #1<\/b><\/span><\/h6>\n<h6><b><\/b><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/mejyfg6F8O8\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe><\/h6>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Following <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Se Nou Ki La<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a notable debut album released in 2015, Chouk Bwa has made a successful comeback (a new record is expected next spring) alongside The \u00c5ngstromers \u2013\u00a0a Belgian duo whose modular synths deliver mystical textures more suited to the Haitians\u2019 repertoire, composed of voodoo-like rhythms and incantations as well as protest songs. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI&#8217;m not going to tell you about my voodoo initiation, it&#8217;s a sacred thing,\u201d<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> announces Edele immediately, a very charismatic backing vocalist and dancer in Chouk Bwa &amp; The \u00c5ngstromers. The rest however, she will talk about.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Edele is a <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">mambo<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, an initiated \u201cpriestess\u201d who leads the ceremonies and interprets the wills of the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lwas<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, voodoo spirits who crossed the Atlantic Ocean with slaves from Dahomey in the 16th century. In the voodoo cults, the trance is about possession, i.e. a trance where the followers, led by chants, dances and powerful rhythms of the drums, invite their own <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lwa<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to express through themselves. Each initiated member addresses their <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lwa<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> according to specific rhythms, chants and dances. Edele\u2019s <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lwa<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> name is \u201cJati Bwa\u201d. Her dance is lively, feline, and quite obviously entranced. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;A talented drummer can easily induce possessions as well as stop them,&#8221;<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> wrote Alfred M\u00e9traux in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Voodoo in Haiti<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (Pantheon, 1989; French original version: Gallimard, 1958). Edele confirms: <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWhen I&#8217;m on stage with Chouk Bwa, I always ask the musicians not to play the rhythm of Jati Bwa, because otherwise I enter a trance and I don&#8217;t remember anything,\u201d<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> she explains, confirming what Gilbert Rouget spoke of when he evoked the amnesia of the possessed person. It\u2019s serious stuff! Although Chouk Bwa\u2019s repertoire does not contain \u201cproper\u201d trance calls, songs such as \u201cVodou Al\u00e9\u201d and \u201cNago\u201d are indeed based on ceremonial rhythms whilst the amazing vocalist Sambaton Dorvil rings the sacred bell, called the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ogan<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;Vodou is the cult of love and sharing, it is healing music. Even when an initiated member is violently punished by a spirit, people take care of him. You have to stop with this whole \u2018voodollywood\u2019 stuff!&#8221;<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, gently exclaims Nicolas Esterle, the \u00c5ngstromers\u2019 least bearded member \u2013 for now.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Completely immersed in voodoo culture after having experienced several ceremonies at the Gona\u00efves, Haiti \u2013\u00a0home of Chouk Bwa\u2019s members \u2013 the two European musicians materialize the presence of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lwas<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> on stage with their modular synthesizers and <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201celectro-acoustic processes that can also be found in dub music, like reverb and delay. But hey, the <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lwas<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> are among us anyway!&#8221; <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">they add, laughing. These Haitian voodoo spirits here meet those of Jacques Roumain and Toussaint Louverture, leader of the slave revolt in the Haitian Revolution that led to the country\u2019s independence on January 1st, 1804. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cVoodoo in Haiti is all that remains: it is our culture that makes us stand up,&#8221;<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> concludes Edele without telling much more about the current socio-economic tensions that the island has experienced recently. Before leaving, she covers my face with delicately scented ritual ointment and pulls on the bridge of my nose. Was this the beginning of an initiation?<\/span><\/p>\n<h6><span style=\"color: #127db5;\"><b><br \/>\nCochemea&#8217;s shamanic trance<\/b><\/span><\/h6>\n<p>https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=JhjuPs_6xPA<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Contrary to the trance of possession in which the initiated person invites a spirit into their body \u2013\u00a0<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;a visit is received&#8221;<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0\u2013 in the shamanic trance, according to Gilbert Rouget, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;a journey is taken&#8221;<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> towards the world of the spirits so one can understand the needs of the community. For American saxophonist Cochemea Gastelum, it seems that the world today needs unity, peace, love and harmony between all forms of life. This is what can be heard in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All My Relations<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, his second solo album released in 2019 on Daptone Records, and whose title quotes a Lakota prayer \u2013\u00a0from a Native American tribe. After playing with Sharon Jones, Public Enemy, Archie Shepp, David Byrne and Amy Winehouse, Cochemea decided to reconnect with his spirituality, his roots and his Native American ancestors. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cMusic seemed to be the perfect vehicle for that purpose,&#8221;<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> he prompted while distractedly caressing a huge turquoise ring.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI am Yaqui <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">[or Hiaki or Yoeme, an indigenous people of Northern Mexico; editor\u2019s note] <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">by my father but he died when I was a child. I have long been cut off from my native ancestry,\u201d<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> continues the man whose name literally means \u201cthey were killed in their sleep\u201d. Cochemea then grew up with his mother, surrounded by the music of Alice Coltrane and Charlie Parker, however she passed down to him <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201csome values, and intuition&#8221;<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. But it\u2019s when he finally reconnected with his father\u2019s side that he discovered, amazingly, a family of urban Native Americans living in Southern California! Cochemea then entered the world of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">pow wows<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (Native American gatherings), and came to learn that he descends from a long line of musicians and began to devour the texts of Vine Deloria and has since shaped a strong taste for Native political concepts. And the election of Donald Trump, in 2016, did not make things any better.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_34124\" style=\"width: 1930px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-34124\" class=\"size-full wp-image-34124\" src=\"https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/412a02fa-cochemea_nicolas-joubard-2122.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/412a02fa-cochemea_nicolas-joubard-2122.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/412a02fa-cochemea_nicolas-joubard-2122-759x506.jpg 759w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/412a02fa-cochemea_nicolas-joubard-2122-1010x673.jpg 1010w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/412a02fa-cochemea_nicolas-joubard-2122-1440x960.jpg 1440w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/412a02fa-cochemea_nicolas-joubard-2122-661x441.jpg 661w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/412a02fa-cochemea_nicolas-joubard-2122-465x310.jpg 465w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/412a02fa-cochemea_nicolas-joubard-2122-375x250.jpg 375w\" sizes=\"(min-width:1010px) 759px,100vw\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-34124\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cochemea \u00a9 Trans Musicales \/ Nicolas Joubard<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br style=\"clear: both;\" \/>Relying on the ritual practices of both the Tungusic people of Siberia and the Eskimos, Gilbert Rouget described the shamanic trance as follows:<i>\u00a0\u201cto the sound of drums and songs, the shaman \u2013\u00a0or rather his soul\u00a0\u2013 leaves his body in order to travel to the invisible world and meet its inhabitants\u00a0<\/i>[dead people or spirits]<i>.\u201d<\/i>\u00a0The initial idea with\u00a0<i>All My Relations<\/i>? Record an album where percussion would be central, entering a dialogue with the incantations of the choir and Cochemea\u2019s saxophone, in order to allow his imagination to\u00a0<i>\u201creturn to places where I have never been, connect with the spirits of my people and try to heal the world a little, in my own way\u201d<\/i>. With \u201cSonora\u201d \u2013\u00a0named after the North-Mexican state where some of the Yaqui people live \u2013, Cochemea enters the land of his ancestors; \u201cMaso Ye&#8217;eme\u201d means \u201cthe dancing deer\u201d, a sacred and highly spiritual figure for the Yaquis; and \u201cMitote\u201d, inspired by a circle dance of the Nayarit warriors. Composed on the formation of a collective improvisation\u00a0<i>&#8220;looking much like a ritual ceremony&#8221;<\/i>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0with ten musicians in the same studio for 24 hours\u00a0\u2013 the record testifies, as does the performance at Transmusicales, a deep communion.\u00a0<i>\u201cI felt like I was slipping away more than once in the studio,&#8221;<\/i>\u00a0Cochemea said, finger-drumming the rhythm on the table in front of him.\u00a0<i>\u201dThis record bears the marks of a long journey. In a way, it signifies the end of my spiritual journey.\u201d<\/i><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<h6><span style=\"color: #127db5;\"><b><br \/>\nGo Go Machine Orchestra&#8217;s communal trance<\/b><\/span><\/h6>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At the heart of the Sufi practices is the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">dikhr<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, known as <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">khalwa<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in Senegal: a trance less spectacular than the trance of possession, but just as connected to the divine in its quest for communion. By calling out and repeating the name of God along to the rhythm, the initiated members open a channel in their hearts \u2013\u00a0now \u201dfree of earthly concerns\u201d\u00a0\u2013 to better approach God and reach <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">fana<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a contemplation level in a state of bliss. When the practice is collective, the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">dikhr<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is hypnotic and leads to trance.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Similarly, but on a non-belief level in this case, Go Go Machine Orchestra turn repetitive minimalist music into their communal mantra. Admirers of Steve Reich, Philip Glass, techno loops and ethereal movie soundtracks, the members of Go Go Machine Orchestra have a relationship with sound based on the concept of \u201clessness\u201d. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe less effects or notes you create, the more creative you become and the more room you create for meditation,\u201d<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> says Bai-Hsun Chung, a musician so wonderful to watch behind his modular synth \u2013\u00a0and in front of an astonishingly attentive audience, considering the late hour, reactive to this progressive, luminous and instrumentally fluid assembly.<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWhen I play our music, I am carried away by the repetition of patterns and then I slip away. I feel alone on the planet, empty yet full at the same time,\u201d<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> says pianist Ni-Li Tang, echoing the Taoist philosophy. Pin-Hsin Wang, in charge of electronic manipulation, adds, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI sometimes feel like I\u2019m in the middle of the universe, powerful in my mind, with a heart wide open. As if I was turning into a channel.&#8221;<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> A dissociated state that would surely have sparked the interest of Gilbert Rouget. The Taiwan-based members of Go Go Machine are unanimous: <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWe have received many testimonies from people who say have been healed by our music. We believe them because it heals us too.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"LIve Go Go Machine Trans Musicales 2019\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/VHjhzE39ZLw?feature=oembed&#038;autoplay=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By going deep into the details of listening and composing,<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;into the details of every single note&#8221;<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the young band work hard on their textures and advocate a return to the fundamentals in a world saturated with desires. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIt\u2019s also a way of canceling time and being in the present. In fact, our music calms this entranced world,\u201d<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> adds marimba player Mao-Sung Lee who, without knowing it, pointed out one of the contradictions raised by Gilbert Rouget. Sometimes the music triggers the trance, and sometimes it soothes it. According to the political textbook <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dao De Jing<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, non-action promotes the growth of nature and while none of the members of the Go Go Machine Orchestra directly practice Taoism or Buddhism, the relationship to these concepts, even on a \u201csecular\u201d level, is assumed. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cMoreover, we want to include Chinese percussion in our music in the future, like these very small cymbals whose sound is ageless,\u201d<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> they add.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s a wonder why ecstatic plenitude, a form of communion with the divine, is not the next step for these young creative minds, adherent to silences and \u201clessness\u201d. Because if we believe Rouget, this state of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cravishment [can only be] attained with silence, solitude and immobility\u201d<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. As wise as they might be, the members of the Go Go Orchestra do not look like they want to keep quiet for now: they recently released <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">TIME<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, an encouragingly received debut album. The journey continues.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_34123\" style=\"width: 1930px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-34123\" class=\"size-full wp-image-34123\" src=\"https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/0ea2f179-guiss-guiss-bou-bess-nico-m.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1282\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/0ea2f179-guiss-guiss-bou-bess-nico-m.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/0ea2f179-guiss-guiss-bou-bess-nico-m-759x507.jpg 759w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/0ea2f179-guiss-guiss-bou-bess-nico-m-1010x674.jpg 1010w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/0ea2f179-guiss-guiss-bou-bess-nico-m-1440x962.jpg 1440w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/0ea2f179-guiss-guiss-bou-bess-nico-m-661x441.jpg 661w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/0ea2f179-guiss-guiss-bou-bess-nico-m-465x310.jpg 465w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/0ea2f179-guiss-guiss-bou-bess-nico-m-375x250.jpg 375w\" sizes=\"(min-width:1010px) 759px,100vw\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-34123\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Guiss Guiss Bou Bess \u00a9 Nico M<\/p><\/div>\n<h6><span style=\"color: #127db5;\"><b><br \/>\nGuiss Guiss Bou Bess&#8217;s possession trance #2\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/h6>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For Guiss Guiss Bou Bess, the trance of possession is expressed by the polyrhythm of the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">sabar<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the mystical drum of the L\u00e9bou community in Senegal. The mechanism is much the same as the Haitian voodoo trance: chants, dances and drums accompany the initiated person until they fall to the ground, possessed by their <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">rab<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and they eventually exclaim the name of the spirit. In the sabar, the initiated person reaches the trance through a dedicated rhythm: the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">nd\u00f6p<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Each year, it gives rise to splendid ceremonies in Cape Manuel, Senegal, where all the women, dressed in white, purify themselves through a ritual bath in the ocean, while offering sacrifices to Leuk Ndao Mbaye, the protective spirit of Dakar. For the Transmusicales festival in France, Guiss Guiss Bou Bess (\u201cnew vision\u201d in Wolof language) performed <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Set Sela<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the very day of its release, a debut album that revisits the traditional sabar with the electronic textures of beatmaker St\u00e9phane Costantini. Including the nd\u00f6p, with the song \u201cNdup\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The voice of Guiss Guiss Bou Bess is Mara Seck, coming to fruition from a family of griots and also as the son of Alla Seck, tassu singer, dancer and <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ambiancer<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for Youssou N\u2019Dour. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201dI grew up in the sabar and I was almost born with the nd\u00f6p. I have accompanied many ceremonies,\u201d<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> he tells us. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201c \u2018Ndup\u2019 is a song that takes me away far into the air. Sometimes, we do not perform it live because it conveys too much energy.\u201d<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> On this subject, ethnomusicologist Gilbert Rouget evokes <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cthe trance of the musicants\u201d<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> as being a very rare situation. At one point in the concert, Mara Seck goes to the front of the stage and places a long and slender drum on his shoulder, the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">nder<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. This is the conductor\u2019s drum, that of the soloists. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cBy doing this, I am calling the spirits. I play their notes, they come and give me a lot of strength. But I have to adjust the intensity because it can be dangerous: imagine if I make someone faint during a concert?\u201d<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, he prompts, very seriously. On the machines, St\u00e9phane Costantini embraces the rhythm of the nd\u00f6p, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cfollowing the ebb and flow of the percussion in its crescendo, up to the climax.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In sabar, dance is another fundamental element of trance. On stage, Mara Seck dances the nd\u00f6p. In his initiative to modernise the sabar with club-tailored beats, Guiss Guiss Bou Bess has also renewed his choreographic vocabulary by adopting the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">krump<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cthe hip-hop of the possessed!\u201d<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> cheekily adds St\u00e9phane Costantini.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mara Seck also confesses that he\u2019s been away from the nd\u00f6p ceremonies for a few years: <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cbecause it&#8217;s too crazy when the mind is too dark.\u201d<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> That\u2019s why, in the darkness of the soundcheck, you can hear him sing religious incantations from the Baye Fall \u2013\u00a0another Senegalese mystical community to which Guiss Guiss Bou Bess paid tribute on \u201cLamp\u201d. Why ?<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u201cTo call in the light.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<h6><span style=\"color: #185aa6;\">Read next:\u00a0<a style=\"color: #185aa6;\" href=\"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/le-guess-who-festival-2019-report\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Le Guess Who? Festival: the way forward<\/a><\/span><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At the Transmusicales festival, \u201ctrance\u201d is not just a word in its name. PAM accompanied artists at the festival whose music is closely linked to a phenomenon ethnomusicologist Gilbert Rouget dedicated a reference book to, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":34125,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9373,7834],"tags":[4676],"location":[7984],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41121"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41121"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=41121"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=41121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}