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Boundary Crossing |
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Duoud (Tunisia/Algeria)
Song : Le Retour D'Ulysee
Album : Wild Serenade (Label-Bleu, France)
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DuOud is the name of this unique collaboration between two oud (North African lute) players, Smadj and Mehdi Haddab. Nominated last year for a Radio 3 Award, their presence again at this year's Awards shows how highly regarded the duo are.
DuOud are Jean-Pierre Smadja – already noted for the two albums he issued as Smadj on MELT 2000 – a Tunisian by birth and trained as a jazz musician and sound engineer. Mehdi Haddab was born in Algiers. He spent time in Burundi, Central Africa, before settling in Paris.
"We grew up with music from all over the world. I grew up in Algeria, but I used to listen to rock music, metal music, reggae music, funk, soul, jazz, everything," says Mehdi. "So if we were to play only traditional music, I think we would have to act, as it wouldn't be true to who we are and our backgrounds. I mean I didn't want to play oud when I was younger, I wanted to play electric guitar and only later, when I was 16, did I start to play oud. Now I play electric oud, combining the two."
"We began to compose our own material," adds Smadj, "so needed rhythms to support our improvisations – that's when we decided to put electronic beats behind our rehearsals. With time we just got involved in compositions with electronics."
The oud is one of the most beautiful instruments in the world, lending itself to Turkish, North African and Middle Eastern interpretation. Yet DuOud's debut album Wild Serenade (Label Bleu) takes the oud into a different context. With the electronic programming expertise of Smadj and the virtuoso performances of Mehdi Haddab the oud is immediately brought into the 21st Century.
"When you play acoustic oud over the top of electronic things it works so good," marvels Smadj. "There's no fight between these two parts."
Garth Cartwright, October 2003
 Read other peoples comments
mikeywill
Their appearance at 2004's Musicport in Whitby was magnificent. Overheard aging folky "well they can play all right but that loud bassline spoils it" .. turn it up to 11 I say!
Tue Jan 25 21:54:55 2005
Julie G
I went to a Du Oud concert in the Culturlann in Belfast and it was a real new experience - a really good mix of traditional and electronic musics/sounds. I would highly recommend to anybody to go and see them - watching them is an experience in itself, they are so much into their music! They really carry you in another world.
Sat Jan 31 16:08:54 2004
richardwuxi
perfect music that can touch your soul
Sat Jan 24 02:35:10 2004
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