VA - Sowal Diabi: De Kaboul à Bamako (2022)

This ambitious project initiated with a reflection on exile and refugees and resulted in an original musical creation bringing together 12 artists - Arat Kilo, Mamani Keita, Ruşan Filiztek, Aida Nosrat, etc. - to create a repertoire of 14 songs, with influences from ethio-jazz, Afghan, Malian and Persian music. A clever mix of cultures, languages, and musicalities where emotion is the anchor.

“Sowal” means “question” in Persian, “diabi” means “answer” in Bambara. This ambitious project was first envisaged more than two years ago while pondering the plight of refugees, their contribution despite the somewhat hostile attitudes people display towards them. Sowal Diabi brought together on the same stage artists that have all experienced exile, physical or cultural: Malian singer Mamani Keita, Iranian singer Aïda Nosrat, her compatriot Sogol Mirzaei playing the târ (lute), the Afghan tabla-player Siar Hashimi, the Kurdish stranbej (virtuoso singer) Ruşan Filiztek and the French Ethio-jazz group Arat Kilo.

This in turn led to a meeting of minds and music despite differing traditions, resulting in this collection of 13 pieces. It’s a shimmering, fascinating tapestry of sound, weaving a diversity of timbre, temperament, and offbeat fashion, in which this strangely disparate Diaspora could not help but touch, attract and ultimately blend in an embrace bordering on love.

Mamani Keïta : Vocals
Aïda Nosrat : Vocals, Violin
Sogol Mirzaei : Tar
Siar Hashimi : Tablas, Daf
Rusan Filiztek : Saz, Daf, Oud, Vocals
and Arat Kilo
Florent Berteau : Drums
Gérald Bonnegrace : Percussions
Fabien Girard : Electric Guitar, Keyboard
Aristide Gonçalves : Trumpet, Keyboard
Michael Havard : Saxophone, Transverse Flute
Samuel Hirsch : Electric Bass Guitar

Tracklist
01. Désert
02. Solila
03. Master Gui
04. Kera Kera
05. Dalila
06. Ecoute le Ney
07. Layli Jan
08. Dia Barani
09. Drum Talk
10. Râhé Nour
11. Snow in Addis
12. Zolf Porayshan
13. Mirage (Ouverture)
14. Mirage