Hindi Zahra - Homeland (2015)

Hindi Zahra grew up in Morocco surrounded by music and dance. The whole family lived in the same building where her grandmother listened to traditional Berber music and her mother to Indian and Egyptian music, dancing with her aunts. Downstairs, in the evening, the uncles played guitar intoxicated by psychedelic music, Led Zeppelin and Marley. When Zahra (her real name) was about 12, her father moved the family to Paris so that the children could be educated in France. This was the beginning of a new life for Zahra which was soon to revolve around music, the beginning of a long trance. She first went on stage when she was 17 during the Fête de la Musique (music festival). "I felt liberated", she tells. Hindi Zahra went from live performances on to recording and disks. First was the irresistible Beautiful Tango which she composed almost ten years ago now. Radio Nova was already playing the demo in 2007. It was the prelude to her first album, the aptly named Handmade which came out three years later. This first album which she crafted herself from A to Z (like in Zahra) was produced by Blue Note. Her music was already instilled with her personal vision, style and tempo. Hindi Zahra toured the world for two and a half years with Handmade, giving 400 concerts. She played until she was exhausted, spinning until she was dizzy - a quest for a trance-like state which took its toll.

As soon as the tour was over, Hindi Zahra decided to move to Marrakesh for a year. She settled there alone in a riad in the medina, like a cocoon open to the outside world, to rest and find her music. «It was a real descent into solitudea place to absorb a story and tell it, to draws songs out of a trance, liberated. Sometimes I would buy provisions and not go out for two weeks." Because trance is central to her music, she began to explore rhythms with Rhani Krija, a world-renowned musician from Essaouira. « He arrived with a van full of percussion instruments which he spread out on the riad's patio. We selected, we mixed: Cuban rhythm with Moroccan percussions, Moroccan rhythm with Indian percussions " Then came the composition, the songs, the arrangements woven over a year on a flying carpet of percussions.

Like in the musical building of her childhood, Hindi Zahra travelled to different levels. She spent time in the caves between Essaouira and Agadir and in the mountains with the Berber farmers scrutinizing the ocean. Hindi Zahra came out of her retreat when the songs starting calling for her: to Cuba, Brazil (to be confirmed), Jordan, Andalusia, Egypt and Italy. She played in two films: Tala Hadid's The Narrow frame of midnight and Fatih Akin's La Blessure (she is the one being kissed in the film's poster). Her musical influences include Miriam Makeba, Césaria Evora, Marvin Gaye and Nina Simone - Zahra included a cover of Just Say I Love Him on a recent tribute album. Such diverse and persistent musical passions fuse with these voyages and experiences, tracing the climbing path to Homeland.

After this odyssey of discovery which lasted two and a half years, she finished recording the album in Paris. For her audience, it is just the beginning of the voyage. Listening to Homeland is like turning the pages of a travel diary, like hearing a life story. There is something essential, elementary about this album - there is the warmth of the sun, the sound of the ocean, the space. The songs move like the tide and the clouds. Many different musical styles are recognizable but have become unidentifiable. They are all blended together and carried along by a heady, swaying tempo which has become the album's destination. Songs of an adventurer, resurging form the innermost depths to dance on waves and wander across deserts. There is melancholy in Hindi Zahra's songs but there is ecstasy in her voice which sends melismas spiralling around the world. The destination is a progressive world soul music which gently, deeply liberates the body and the heart.

TRACKLIST
01. To The Forces (4:39)
02. Silence (4:22)
03. Any Story (4:18)
04. Un jour (5:17)
05. Can We Dance (4:34)
06. La Luna (3:58)
07. The Blues (3:53)
08. Broken Ones (4:07)
09. Dream (5:52)
10. Cabo Verde (2:59)
11. The Moon Is Full (4:55)