ABOUT THE BAND
Arabic Vibrations - For the first time in his career, Fawzy Al-Aiedy pays tribute to traditional arabic songs from Orient (Irak, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt) and Maghreb (Marocco, Tunisia, Algeria), spicing them with his own melodies. Through Ishtar Connection, traditional songs, modes and rhythms match with electronic sounds and beats.
To carry out this project, the singer Fawzy AL-AIEDY surrounded himself with four young musicians. The Valdôtain, Vincent BONIFACE produces through his instruments (diatonic accordion, clarinet, bagpipes, bombarde, flutes) a multitude of acoustic resonances. The oud player and arranger Amin AL-AIEDY, born between two cultures, builds a subtle architecture between the East and the West and makes his strings vibrate in resonance with the song. The keyboardist (recently integrated into the group) Sylvain RATOVONDRAHETY brings rich and relevant harmonies. Adrien AL-AIEDY ("Adrien DRUMS") brings with his drums an organic groove combined with percussions and electronic sounds. What could be better than appealing to the new generation cradled between two cultures.
Between Fawzy’s melodies, the traditional Oriental modes, spicy rhythms and contemporary electro sounds, the “Four Musketeers” join forces to present a brand new ethno-electro project, creating a new and evolutive space of sound, which transcends musical tradition.
Contagious grooves, catchy refrains, crystalline oud melodies and rhythmic synths, making everybody dance like Dervishes on a multicolour high wire between here and there, between yesterday and today.
Welcome to 1001 Festive Nights.
BIOGRAPHIES
Fawzy Al-Aiedy |
Vocals, electric oud
Vincent Boniface |
Diatonic button accordion, bagpipes, bombarde,
clarinet, flutes
Amin Al-Aiedy | Oud
and arrangements
​
Adrien Al-Aiedy |
Alias Adrien Drums
Drums and electronic sounds
​
Sylvain Ratovondrahety |
Keyboard
Nominated for a Django d’Or, this composer-singer-musician of Iraqi descent is known for his culturally mixed creations. With his charism and stage presence, Fawzy (Fawzy Al-Aiedy) receives his audience in Oriental style, sharing his passions as a traveller and musician. Continually curious for different genres, Ishtar Connection marks a new chapter in his musical work. He melts Oriental tunes with electronic music, to create a surprising alchemy of original compositions, cover versions, traditional music modes, spicy rhythms and cutting-edge electro sounds in step with the time. For more than 30 years, he has performed many concerts in France and different parts of the globe.
Vincent Boniface is a multi-instrumentalist who likes exploring all kinds of different genres. He has a marked preference for composition and improvisation, and his play communicates a contagious enthusiasm. Born into a family of musicians in the Aosta Valley (Northern Italy), his musical research focuses on the encounter of popular expression and experimentation. He is involved with the preservation of minority languages. From the early age of 10, he has regularly performed at traditional music festivals and venues across Europe. He participates in many different projects, ranging from traditional music to folk-jazz-rock, while fusing traditional music with electro in a live project with DJs. He won the First Prize for bagpipes at the Festival international de Saint-Chartier in 2000, as well as another Prize at Loano festival in 2007. He has worked with Fawzy Al-Aiedy for many years.
Amin Al-Aiedy is a young bass and double bass player who has grown up between two cultures, reared by a French mother and an Iraqi father who is none other than Fawzy.
From the cradle, he has been surrounded by oud sounds. At the conservatory, he pursued a double degree: jazz and improvised music (with Jean-Daniel Hégé and Éric Watson) on one hand, contemporary music (with Samuel Collard) on the other. He also studied classical guitar (with Hideaki Tsuji) as well as composing and orchestration (bachelor’s degree in musicology).
He then continued his musical journey by learning oud and maqam (oriental modes) in Tunis, where he also teaches jazz and jazz double bass.
He participates in diverse jazz and world music bands (Djokla, Antilog, New Balkan Express, Fawzi Chekili, Hedi Fahem, Omar El Ouaer, etc).
Born from a musician father, Adrien has grown through an atypical drum process, mostly selftaught.He begins his journey at the age of 7. As the classic academical teaching does not fit his expectations, he decides to create his own path, following his instincts, needs, and ideas.
Looking for energy and intensity, (Travis Barker, the Rev…) he performs in several bands within the world of punk, electronic music, metal and rock. Then stroke by the virus of groove, he continues to learn the drums within the progressive wave and fusion, inspired by the great Benny Greb, Stuart Copeland…He then opens his drumming to latin, jazz and african rhythms during intensive courses at the CIM (Paris), while also studying with Adel Shams El Din, master of oriental rhythms.
Interested in new technologies, he’s not afraid of mixing electronic with acoustic drumming to create a hybrid sound, both modern and organic. He created his own Youtube channel in 2012, carried by his need to share his knowledge (tutorials and drums playthrough on different music styles). He accompagnies artists from the parisian scene, and plays as a duowith Julia Ortola (hip hop dancer) and Ali Stone (colombian DJ).
Sylvain Ratonvondrahety, of Malagasy origin, born in Paris in 1983, eclectic musician, lives only for, by and in music. At the cabarets of his "Big Island" in Africa, he immersed himself in these scales and rhythms, never seen during his classical training, to be able, alone in the piano bar, to have fun putting them into practice. And there, the encounters are made: funk, soul, gospel, hip-hop and RnB, everything called "groove" feeds him. In search of new sounds, but without abandoning tradition, he enjoys rock, pop, church songs, liturgy and fusion. After 2 years spent in Madagascar, he opens up the "Ears of the mind" even more: ragga, reggae, zouk, sega, seggae, rock (the "real") for a return to classical and jazz, in order to find salsa, bossa, tango, afro-beat and bikutsi. Passages required by various musical activities but no matter the place or the reason, the important thing is the music and the sharing with new people and new horizons.
"Music is life"
ALBUM COLLABORATIONS
GSTN | Programming, beatmaking
Electronic music producer Gaston (Philippe Rieger) is a multi-faceted sound artisan. Born into a family of melomaniacs, he works as a saxophone player, singer, lyricist, arranger and composer. He deploys his talents in a great variety of projects in which he handles every step of the creative process. Having grown up with hip-hop, techno and reggae, he performed as MC before becoming a member of La Fanfare en Pétard, where he also does the arrangements and mixing, and creating the fusion band Notilus, a new journey into the heart of sound. Also being a passionate beat maker, he has participated in productions by DJ Nelson and by many rappers. He has also plunged into the world of French chanson and global music, and doesn’t shy away from writing music for several theatre productions. Gaston loves experimentation of any kind.
Zied Zouari | Violin, viola
​
​
Born in Tunisia in 1983 to a family of musicians, Zied Zouari began playing violin at the age of seven. He obtained the first prize for children performing in Tunis in 1996 and the gold medal for the festival of young creative artists in Kram (Tunisia) in 1997. He began his professional career with Lebanese singer "Wadi SAFÎ" in 1999. Armed with a solid training, he landed in Paris in 2006, where he met musicians from all walks of life, played with great fame such as Sylvain Luc, Nizar Rohana, Manu Théron, Dionysos Papasterios, Emel Mathlouthi, David Aubaille, Bojan Z, Mathias Duplessy, Manuel Delgado… He is on the way to forming a reference in contemporary Arabic violinist language by developing a fusional approach that traces his various influences ranging from Afro-Arab music to Jazz.