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Music of Islam 5: Aissaoua Sufi Ceremony

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Morocco is renown for its various Sufi brotherhoods (and its similar gnawa groups), all with unique musical sounds and approaches to trance. Brotherhoods center around particular Sufi saints, and the group of this recording, the Aissaoua, are followers of Shaykh al-Kamil (Adbd Allah Sidi Muhammad ben Aisa as-Sufiani al-Mukhtari. The recording is at a hadra, or public rite, held in a home and is composed of a selected suite of dikhr songs that are supported by small clay drums and the large wooden frame drums and cymbals. Remembrances and blessings are bestowed and other liturgical functions occur. There are various rhythms of songs (2/4; 6/8; 5/4) but at one point the tempo accelerates to take the participants toward baraka, the altered reality of bliss. The closing sections involve the ghaita, a shrill double reed oboe that was made famous by the early recordings of the Jajouka brotherhood. As part of The Music of Islam series, the album provides insight into the religion and the role of music, but from the perspective of a purely music listener, the recording could be tedious and uninteresting. Other recordings of Sufi music, or samā, would be better choices here, but if you desire a field recording of what occurs in Sufi ceremonies, then this album certainly is valuable.