Imal Gnawa
9.2.25
7pm - 11pm
9.2.25
7pm - 11pm
'vienna', a new release on Small Forms Records w FIM Basel Concert March 2023 Hypersurface is a NYC-based trio consisting of Drew Wesely (guitar/objects), Lester St. Louis (cello), and Carlo Costa (percussion). Hypersurface explores timbral, durational, and formal aspects of improvisation with lenses focused on their instruments' acoustic particularities alongside employing tiles, railroad spikes, ceramic plates and other objects to expand them further. In coming together Carlo, Drew and Lester wanted to create a music that puts emphasis on the erasure of sonic boundaries, embracing the liminal spaces between their instruments, their sounds and the greater sonic environment. Timbre, gesture, duration, particles, layers… a real time tapestry of its own. The trio has given performances throughout the United States and Europe in a diversity of concert settings from clubs to large halls and galleries; with each utilizing the acoustics to follow potent musical pathways. Kamau Amu Patton is an interdisciplinary artist and educator whose work examines history and culture through engagement with archives, documents, stories, and sites. Patton’s projects are dialogic and take form as expanded field conversations. http://kamaupatton.com
Imal Gnawa work at the intersection of Moroccan Gnawa tradition and contemporary electronic music. Drawing from the ceremonial rhythms and spiritual practices of Gnawa culture, they layer guembri, drum machines, and synthesizers into compositions that move between meditative and kinetic states.
Gnawa music is ancient psychiatry. Emerging from centuries of spiritual practice in Morocco, it blends North African mysticism with Islamic, pre-Islamic African, and Jewish ceremonial elements. At its center lies the lila—an all-night healing ceremony where musicians invoke specific spirits through repetitive rhythms and the deep resonance of the guembri, guiding participants into trance states for therapeutic and transcendental purposes. This shamanic practice uses music as a bridge between worlds, creating space for spiritual transformation and communal healing.
Gnawa music is ancient psychiatry. Emerging from centuries of spiritual practice in Morocco, it blends North African mysticism with Islamic, pre-Islamic African, and Jewish ceremonial elements. At its center lies the lila—an all-night healing ceremony where musicians invoke specific spirits through repetitive rhythms and the deep resonance of the guembri, guiding participants into trance states for therapeutic and transcendental purposes. This shamanic practice uses music as a bridge between worlds, creating space for spiritual transformation and communal healing.