Until November 13, the 23e Montreal Arab World Festival offers performances, film screenings, workshops and conferences, and, above all, meetings. Like the one that will be held on the Maisonneuve theater stage on Saturday: The Possesseda creation imagined for the first time in 2006 and reissued with three new talents, all of Syrian origin, the singers Ahmad Azrak and Lena Chamamyan, as well as the young composer Samer Saem Eldahr.
“And it’s a marvelous project, very unexpected, in the good sense of the word”, says the one who has been working on it for a month after a rehearsal. “We could first present this creation as an intergenerational meeting”, specifies the composer, who has been making a career for a dozen years with his electro-tarab project Hello Psychaleppo.
The tradition will be embodied by Ahmad Azrak, a singer renowned for his mastery of Arabic folk styles (particularly the Aleppine quoudoud), and also an old friend of Samer’s father, at the time when he hired musicians to animate his restaurant. ‘Aleppo. Modernity will arrive through Lena Chamamyan, of Armenian origin but born in Damascus, the soprano combining traditional Arabic music with jazz and classical music.
As for the youngest, Samer, knowing his work, it is assumed that he will put groove, rhythm and electronic instruments into it. “And I think that’s where the magic happens, in this amalgamation of aesthetics, in our way of playing with the harmonies, especially the maqâm”, this complex musical system with particular scales and microtonal melodies that we will compare to the ragas of Indian classical music, which is played from Syria to Egypt, along the Mediterranean coast.
The three musicians have already been individually invited by the Festival du monde arabe de Montréal, which this time invited them to a creative encounter entitled The Possessed. “Jazz, electronic music and this Arabic musical genre called tarab all have in common, in certain aspects of their rhythms and their orchestrations, a feeling of trance. That’s the goal of the project — and when you go into a trance, you’re kind of possessed by the music,” says Samer. About fifteen musicians will accompany the trio on stage.
Because I make electronic music, I feel that my work today goes beyond the borders of the Arab world
A trained guitarist, Samer Saem Eldahr (who now resides in Turkey, after having lived in Beirut and the United States) played in various rock bands in Aleppo before turning to electronic music production: “I played with different music creation software, and just for fun, i was trying to add beats and basslines to sample tarab music recordings. My project appeared in a very natural way. »
Three albums between 2013 and 2017 appear under the name Hello Psychaleppo, a fusion of tarab music and techno, trance and dubstep. He’s slowed down the tempo on his most recent compositions, embracing boogie groove and electro-funk.
“Because I make electronic music, I feel that my work today goes beyond the borders of the Arab world. What’s more, the diaspora is interested in it — this electronic sound is appreciated worldwide,” and Arabic flavors are percolating better and better in the world of club music.
From Montreal, the Laylit collective celebrates the diversity and creativity of electronic musicians in the Arab world by throwing parties here and in New York; in London, a collective of producers of similar events called Marsm organizes regular parties called Hishek Bishek.
“It was time for the rest of the world to discover our style of club music! says Samer, who recorded a session for Boiler Room, the famous platform reserved for danceable electronic music and the DJs who broadcast it. “My performance will air sometime next year, and to be honest, I would say it marked a milestone in my career. I can assure you that our community of musicians has a lot of potential. What musicians of Arab origin lack are platforms to make ourselves heard. »