Azmari - Maelström (Sdban Records 2023.)
The Belgian music scene has produced a large number of brilliant bands in recent years, drawing inspiration from influences of traditional music from around the world and combining them with funk, jazz, groove and various other musical styles. Azmari is one of the most prominent groups, first appearing on the scene in 2019 with their EP "Ekera" and wowing everyone two years later with their fantastic "Samā'ī" album. Today Azmari released their new album "Maelström" for Sdban Records. The band members talk about another mix of ethio-jazz, dub, funk and much more in the latest edition of the "Track Tales" section.
Sheep Party
Sheeps also have the right to do parties. Driven by an hypnotic keyboard, they’re looking for it for a while, when suddenly, they discovered by chance what they were looking for: a dark and astounding cave where an epic porcupines horn section were doing a moon ceremony.
Khamsin
Khamsin is a hot, burning wind from Egypt. Throughout the song, you can feel it coming and going. Sometimes it's far away, sometimes it hits us hard. It's illustrated here with the Baglama Saz and the Turkish kaval, two instruments that some of the band members brought back from a tour in Istanbul.
Abyssal Wandering
As many of our friends and fans know by now, Azmari loves dub. This track is definitely a little ode to the genre. The main melody came to existence after a late night jam in a castle and has been derived from an improvisation. Again would we like to thank our producer Frederik Segers for processing this track into a real pool of witty dub.
Zargana
The first part of this one has been composed a while back, with a focus on groove, one static bass line and the freedom that this gives for a melody to go anywhere. Here we have Matteo using that same freedom to let himself go all the way in a bariton saxophone solo which leads us to a powerful outro.
Crab Squad
This track was inspired by an oriental approach of the diminished scale. Originally recorded with lots of saxophones on top of each other, the tune demanded a certain heaviness. On the record, we have the great Nathan Daems joining us on ney. We proposed him the track as a feature and he managed to create a story while keeping the initial vibe in it’s place.
Octopus Perspective
Probably the most difficult song to compose on this album. As a matter of fact, we went trough a lot of different ideas, too much without a doubt. But with the suggestions and advices of our precious producer and sound engineer Frederik Segers, we found its own way to grail. Starting with this crazy Snoopy-Doggy keyboard, we end up in a balcanic storm of soprano sax solo and percussions.
Nanomia
Azmari don’t use to play early in the morning, but sometimes they do. During a residency, they got into the habit of everyday slowly waking up with a sweet and calm jam session. This track is the result of this morning creation. For them, playing this track is a bit like putting cream on your face.
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