Zār Electrik will climb The Cedar Cultural Center’s stage steps September 24th and give their Minneapolis audience something new, something different, and something very needed—a musical respite from the political and cultural upheaval of current events.
Mshale sat down with two of the band’s members, Anass Zine and Didier Miosine to understand more about their origins and influences. It was an interesting bilingual conversation in both English and French.
One of the band’s first members, Moroccan-born Anass Zine said, “Our inspiration is like trance music, healing music, it comes from all of North and West Africa. There is this cultural uprooting, you know. Us, we use this name, Zār.”
One of Egypt’s oldest dances, the Zār, performed to elicit healing specifically of spirit possession, is practiced by Muslims, Christians and Jews, in the West African countries of Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia where the concept of Zār originated.
Zine confirmed, “Zār is ritual from Egypt and Ethiopia, but we don’t play in Zār, you know. It’s like we take the spirit of Zār, you know. Because in Morocco, we have the Gnawa music.”
Zine who plays guitar, oud, and gumbri in the band and kora-player Arthur Peneau met in 2019 in Marseille and began working on a first duo repertoire under the name Zār Electrik.
During the pandemic of 2020, they met Didier Miosine and integrated him into the project as the beat-maker. Ritual and rhythm remain integral to Zār dances, wherever they are practiced and the electronic percussive influences of Miosine were essential.
“We work in traditional music, pieces which are from gnawa music, and also a lot of pieces that we write ourselves, me, Arthur, [Didier], the three of us, compose our own music,’ said Zine.
Miosine, the third and last artist to join the trio is a master of machines, synthesizers, and electronic music codes. He described some of his work prior to joining Zār Electrik.
He said, “I’d been working on several projects for the last 20 years, I’ve been in many groups. I was working as a producer, and I was also adapting music. I worked with many singers in France, in folk music, in hip hop. My project was just electronic music. and… that’s it, voila.”
An extra treat for the Cedar audience at Zār Electrik’s upcoming show will be Arthur Peneau’s electric kora. While there have been many excellent kora players performing on The Cedar’s stage, the koras played have all been traditionally made using a calabash gourd as the body of the instrument. Peneau’s kora, built by a man from Marseille, resembles a mashup of an acoustic kora and a portable harp.
The show is a mashup of culture, genre, and traditional music.
Said Zine, “Zār Electric, it’s a mix between music from North Africa, music from West Africa, and Mediterranean music, all mixed with electronic music, in the broad sense. It’s a trance, mixed with world music, electronic music from everywhere.”
It’s a mix, for real.
Tickets to Zār Electrik’s September 24th show at 7:30 are available at this Cedar link.
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About Susan Budig
Susan is based in Minneapolis and reports on general assignments for Mshale with a focus on entertainment. In addition to reporting, she is also a writer, poet, teacher and coach.
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