"Al Djalilu" (The All Powerful)

Remote and often overlooked in the Indian Ocean, the Comoros Islands, like their distant neighbors Zanzibar, Reunion, Mauritius, and Madagascar, present a complex, one-of-a-kind amalgam of African, Arab, Asian, and European cultures.  This album’s notes claim that Nawal is Comoros’s first woman singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist to perform in public.  Whether or not that is strictly true, she is the first we’ve come across on CD.  And she is a find.  Her voice is deep, at times almost husky, and rich with experience, seriousness and moral authority.

The production here has a light touch, all acoustic instruments: nylon-string guitars, sanza thumb piano, breathy, wood flute, warm-toned, deep-pitched hand drums, shakers and cymbals.  “Al Djalilu” (The All Powerful) sets the mood with a chanting refrain, a restlessly cycling guitar ostinato, and periodic bursts of low drum and shaker that sound like a mountain’s sigh.  All this sets the stage for Nawal’s elegant vocal, strong, dry, and commanding at center.  Songs like “Sana” (Try) and “Naritsangagnihe” (Let Us Unite) play as folk music, but the instrumentation and arranging give them a theatrical, almost visual character.  These eleven songs create their own sonic realm, earthy but delicate, cloistered but always with an eye to the heavens. 

Nawal’s cool, spare cover of Jacues Brel’s “Ces Gens La” (These People) benefits from a tasty hint of Malagasy trilling in the guitar work.  And the energized propulsion of Malagasy folk music also echoes in “Mwaha Mwena” (Best Wishes), probably the most pumping song in the set.  Elsewhere, as on “Hegne” (Pay Attention), the rolling 12/8 feel found throughout these Indian Ocean islands is just barely present, more a hint of possibility than a full-blown rhythm.  Most of these songs feel restrained and reverent, expressive, but rarely celebratory.  The album makes an impressive international debut.  Nawal may be new to us, but this kind of maturity and integrity was clearly many years in the making.

Contributed by: Banning Eyre for www.afropop.org