The vocal lines, by Amel Zen, of Barber culture in the Dahra region of Algeria, follow the dynamic lines of the percussion and Kurdish Daf by Hajar Zahawy, to form a duet of rhythm and voice.
The Kurdish Daf symbolizes the national instrument of the Kurdish people and has a very important place in the cultural heritage of the Kurds.
The Daf comes from a spiritual Sufi background and goes back to more than 1000 years in history. My project was focused on percussion and the different styles and rhythms which can be found in Kurdish music and culture, and combining many varieties of percussion instruments. Amel Zen from Algeria, participated as a guest to sing on the rhythms inspired from Amazigh north African culture and identity; especially the Kabylie region which is a mix of barber and the culture in the Dahra region of Algeria.
The process was very interesting; we exchanged many ideas and wanted to find out how we can layer the percussion instruments in order to obtain the correct sound harmony and the right sound atmosphere. In the first recording attempts, the instruments were not sounding right and had very dissonant sounds. The percussion harmony was not matching. But after many experiments I managed to layer the correct sounds together and find the rhythms that would harmonize.
The vocal lines follow the very dynamic lines of the percussion. They alternate in melody and sometimes have slight modulations in some vocal phrases, which is inspired by the percussion; in that way the Algerian and Kurdish identities are fused and can be heard.
I composed many rhythmical phrases, simple and polyrhythmic. The vocal layers embrace such phrases in the piece that portrays a sense of storytelling track. It has high and low moments when you hear and share the connection of rhythm and voice that has always been connected together.