English Booklet Opens Door to Native North African Soul
Arch Valaylo | Seattle, WA | 10/30/2003
(5 out of 5 stars)
"At long last the marginalized and exiled native North African Amazigh (Berber) voice gains access to the Anglo world after long being ghetto-ized in the Uncle Colonial Francophone world. & what a voice 'tis! Idir has for 20+ years been the griot bringing news from behind the Arabic Curtain of what has become of glorious Algeria since the revolution that banished the French colonialists got hijacked by the Nasserist Wave that swept across multi-tribal Tamazgha (Land of Free Peoples, or the name for North Africa in the suppressed native Tamazight language whose regional dialects still are the mother tongue for some 30 million sub rosa native North Africans yet to be able to study their language in school or use it in open official public life).There was an earlier French edition of this Idir collection that opened with one new song, a French language collaboration with Jean Jacques (J.J.) Goldman written in the wake of the November 2001 flood and mudslides that claimed over 800 lives while the Algerian regime and its sponsors the Arab League were nowhere to be found in any kind of humanitarian relief effort. That poetic song named "Pourquoi cette pluie?" honored all the victims of the natural disaster and unnatural silence that followed the 'National Prayer for Rain,' led on state television and radio by President Abdelazziz Bouteflika in his pre-deluge bid to appease the Islamist Insurgency that annually rampages across the Mitidja Plain during the holy month of Ramadan. On this new English-booklet edition the song ends the set.The other French song that was included in France's edition of this otherwise all-Tamazight (suppressed Berber language) lyrical wreath is a lame number by France's old chansonmeister, George Brassens, named "Trompettes." And boy did trumpets really foul the air on that rare lapse of good taste by Idir. Thankfully that Gallic ditty has been dropped from this current English-booklet edition. Substituted in its stead is a truly vital song from early in Idir's career. The replacement song is "Tuaregs" wherein Idir calls out the Euro travel agencies and tourist industries of the colonially-backed corrupt regimes, whose wintry Northern European dreary walls are lined with bright tourista & faux exotica posters of Kel Tamasheq. Idir turns his Tamazight phrases with the wry irony of a survivor of genocides, who has witnessed and is witnessing regeneration of an ancient Afro-Mediterranean culture that spent the 20th Century having its classical identity overlaid by Gas & Oil lines across their Saharan homeland, charted on 19th century maps by its native name of Azouad, or The Hot Place (now overlapping the lines drawn in the sand and labelled Algeria, Morocco, Mali, Mauritania and Niger).Idir sings of these Tamasheqt-speaking Imazighen (plural of Amazigh) as the Free Peoples. That is the way this wandering sub-set of Amazigh people prefer to call themselves and to be known, rather than the 'Touareg' name they were tagged with at the time of the Islamic Conquest, when invading Arabs used an old pre-literate Arabic phrase "Targiyya" referring to those "Abandoned by the Gods" to describe the linguistically and culturally mysterious Saharan nomads who possessed their own written script, now banned across Libya, named Tifinagh.Other highlights of this first ever English-translated lyric summary-filled booklet include Idir's vocal collaborations with co-writers Brahim Izri (think John Turturro as a native North African poet & balladeer) and Maxime LeForestier on "Tizi Ouzou/San Francisco" a majestic, if, painfully melancholy look back at what Utopian idealism wrought in Kabylia's majestic Atlas Mountain capital of Tamazgha once the bloom faded on the Che Guevarra-inspired 1960's that was actually the beginning of an ethnic cleansing campaign targeting all none Arabo-Islamists as a threat to Algeria's national unity. The melody on "Tizi Ouzou" is at once ancient in its echo, yet as emblematic of the struggle of the revolutionary Imazighen to build a free and egalitarian Algeria as any Nuevo Cancion tribal melody turned into folk anthem by Chile's martyred songwriter laureate Victor Jara.The version of Idir's biggest World Music hit "A Vava Inouva/Hey Little Daddy" found in this English-booklet edition is the original, a tender Tamazight duet with the gamine Mila. It is not the remake "A Vava Inouva 2" that appeared on his IDENTITIES CD and then the French-booklet version that featured a sweeping Gaelic duet with Celtic Capercaillie singer Karen Matheson. The intimate and irrepressible acoustic guitar fingerpicking by Idir is then followed by the tune that "A Vava Inouva" led into on his original album. "Isephra/Journey" is swept along by the amazing Kabylian percussionist Rabah Khalfa curled into an electric bass line that could be Jaco Pastorious if you close your eyes and ressurect him in your aural imagination. Again Mila delivers a sensuous countermelody in her vocal harmony that swells like the Beach Boys surfing through the Straits of Gibraltar. This track too is NOT found on the French-booklet edition of this Idir retrospective titled DEUX REVE, UNE RIVE, and makes an excellent case in and of itself for choosing this new English-booklet edition now titled TWO BORDERS, ONE DREAM (though more poetically delivered as TWO SHORES, ONE STREAMING DREAM)."
English Booklet Opens Door to Native North African Soul
Arch Valaylo | Seattle, WA USA | 11/07/2003
(5 out of 5 stars)
"At last the marginalized and exiled native North African Amazigh (Berber) voice gains access to the Anglo world after too long being ghetto-ized in the Uncle Colonial Francophone world. & what a voice 'tis! Idir has for 20+ years been the griot bringing news from behind the Arabic Curtain of what has become of glorious Algeria since the revolution that banished the French colonialists got hijacked by the Nasserist Wave that swept across multi-tribal Tamazgha. Tamazgha is the native name for "Maghreb" or "North Africa" and means in the suppressed Tamazight language "Land of Free Peoples." Tamazight language regional dialects (Taqbaylith in Kabylia,Algeria where Idir is from) are the mother tongue for some 30 million sub rosa native North Africans yet to be able to study their language in school or use it in open official public life.There was an earlier French edition of this Idir collection that opened with one new song, a French language collaboration with Jean Jacques (J.J.) Goldman written in the wake of the November 2001 flood and mudslides that claimed over 800 lives. For critical weeks after this catastrophe the Algerian regime of U.S. and French-backed Generals as well as their sponsors in the Arab League, were nowhere to be found with any kind of humanitarian relief effort. The poetic song named "Pourquoi cette pluie?" honors all the victims of the natural disaster (focusing on the submerged shantytown Bab El Oued) and unnatural silence that followed a 'National Prayer for Rain,' ironically led on state television and radio by President Abdelazziz Bouteflika in his pre-deluge bid to appease the Islamist insurgency that annually rampages across the Mitidja Plain during the holy month of Ramadan. Now on the English-booklet edition this new Idir recording properly ends his career retrospective.The other French song included in France's edition of this otherwise all-Tamazight (suppressed Berber language) lyrical wreath is a lame number by France's old chansonmeister, Georges Brassens, named "Trompettes." And boy did a trumpetard really foul the air on that rare lapse of good taste by Idir. Thankfully Brassens' Gallic ditty has been dropped from this current English-booklet edition. Substituted in its stead is a truly vital song from early in Idir's career. The replacement song is "Tuaregs" wherein Idir calls out the Euro travel agencies and tourist industries of the colonially-backed corrupt regimes, whose wintry Northern European dreary walls are lined with bright tourista & faux exotica posters of Kel Tamasheq. Idir turns his Tamazight phrases with the wry irony of a survivor of genocides, who has witnessed and is witnessing regeneration of an ancient Afro-Mediterranean culture that spent the 20th Century having its classical identity overlaid by Gas & Oil lines across their Saharan homeland, charted on 19th century maps by its native name of Azouad, or The Hot Place (now overlapping the lines drawn in the sand and labelled Algeria, Morocco, Mali, Mauritania and Niger).Idir sings of these Tamasheqt-speaking Imazighen (plural of Amazigh) as the Free Peoples. That is the way this wandering sub-set of Amazigh people prefer to call themselves and to be known, rather than the 'Touareg' name they were tagged with at the time of the Islamic Conquest, when invading Arabs used an old pre-literate Arabic phrase "Targiyya" referring to those "Abandoned by the Gods" to describe the linguistically and culturally mysterious Saharan nomads who possessed their own written script, now banned across Libya, named Tifinagh.Other highlights of both editions include Idir's vocal collaborations with co-writers Brahim Izri (think John Turturro as a native North African poet & balladeer) and Maxime LeForestier on "Tizi Ouzou/San Francisco." This majestic, if, painfully melancholy anthem looks back at what Utopian idealism wrought in Kabylia's grand Atlas Mountain capital of Tamazgha once the bloom faded on the Che Guevarra-inspired 1960's. For native Algerian Imazighen (Berbers) that was actually the beginning of an ethnic cleansing campaign targeting all none Arabo-Islamists as a threat to Algeria's national unity. The melody on "Tizi Ouzou" is at once ancient in its echo, yet as emblematic of the struggle of the revolutionary Imazighen to build a free and egalitarian Algeria as any Nuevo Cancion tribal melody turned into folk anthem by Chile's martyred songwriter laureate Victor Jara.The version of Mohammed BenHammdouche & Idir's biggest World Music hit "A Vava Inouva/Hey Little Daddy" found in this English-booklet edition is the original, a tender Tamazight duet with the gamine Mila. It is not the remake "A Vava Inouva 2" that appeared on his IDENTITIES CD and then again on the French-booklet version of this retrospective and that featured a sweeping Gaelic duet with Celtic Capercaillie singer Karen Matheson. Both retrospectives do fortunately feature Idir's Breizh-Celtic-Kabylie creative collaboration with Dan Ar Braz, Alan Stivell, and Gilles Servat on "Isaltiyan/The Celts." Idir's intimate and irrepressible acoustic guitar fingerpicking on the original "A Vava Inouva" is then followed by the tune that it segued into on his original album. "Isephra/Journey" is a whirlwind with amazing Kabylian percussionist Rabah Khalfa set off from drummers A. Ceccarelli and Arezki Broudi, who curl into an electrical bass line by Hachemi Bellali that could be Jaco Pastorious if you close your eyes and ressurrect him in your aural imagination. Again Mila delivers a sensuous countermelody in her vocal harmony that swells lovely as the Beach Boys surfing through the Straits of Gibraltar. This track too is NOT found on the French-booklet edition of Idir's retrospective titled DEUX REVE, UNE RIVE, and makes an excellent case in and of itself for choosing this newer English-booklet edition now titled TWO BORDERS, ONE DREAM (though more poetically delivered as TWO SHORES, ONE STREAMING DREAM)."
Learn about North African music
Rabah Seffal | Bloomington, IL USA | 10/29/2003
(4 out of 5 stars)
"A great CD from this North African artist who has been patiently working to share the music and melodies of his native Kabylia with the world. "Two Borders, One Dream" should interest world music lovers as well as the novices. More about Idir could be found in the article in the magazine British FROOTS August/Spetember 2003 no. 242/243 written by Ivan Chrysler."
Track Listings (17) - Disc #1