Ayrad innovates with hybrid sound
“When I am writing my music, I have no limits. I write what I feel, what I see, what I believe. That’s it. It is natural,” says singer, composer and lead guitarist Hamza Abouabdelmajid of the Montreal-based world music fusion collective Ayrad.
He was born in the Medina of Fes, the cultural and spiritual capital of Morocco.
“I learned from my Dad and my musicians family,” says Abouabdelmajid, adding Ayrad (pronounced Hi-e-rad) is his name in the Berber language.
“We had a lot of parties,” he notes with a distinctive laugh. “And there we would sing and play music. Because we learned music when we were so young, I think it helped a little bit,” he says adding that when he came to Montreal in 2005 to pursue his university studies, he and brother Khahil formed award-winning band Bambara Trans.
Then Abouabdelmajid decided to start his own project. He met Annick Beauvais at Montreal’s popular world music performance nook Les Bobards. Beauvais has played with many Montreal bands including cross-cultural groups Syncop and Absinthe in addition to performing on soundtracks and albums for Cirque du Soleil’s “Cavalia” and Felix Gray musical “Sherazade.”
“I told Annick about my project and she said, ‘Yes. Why not?’ I gave her my compositions and said ‘Wow! That is great playing,’” exclaims Abouabdelmajid, who immediately asked Beauvais to join him.
In addition to back vocals, Beauvais plays oboe, bass, and the reita (a Moroccan oboe-like instrument). Abouabdelmajid and Beauvais are joined by Ayrad’s multi-genre instrumentalist “family” including Gabriel Brochu-Lajoie, back vocals, bass, double bass; Anit Ghosh, violin, back vocals; Kattam Laraki-Côté, percussion, back vocals; and Bertil Schulrabe, drums.
Abouabdelmajid, who sings in Arabic and French, says his mix of Maghrebian, Andalusian, Middle Eastern, and Moroccan-Jewish melody is like poetry.
“I think that helps me to sing well,” he continues. “I have to sing like an instrument because there are a lot of notes and vibrations.”
Ayrad, which was recently nominated for a Juno for Best World Music Album, has performed at many Montreal/ Quebec festivals and beyond including a recent five-day stint at Semaine of the Francophonie Festival in Doha, Qatar.
The band’s self-titled album debut recorded at Montreal’s Fast Forward Studios with Rob Heaney (Cirque du Soleil) is an example of Ayrad’s groundbreaking hybrid sound from traditional Middle Eastern melodies to injections of reggae, blues, jazz, funk, and flamenco.
It features Abouabdelmajid compositions like blues-calypso-Celtic fiddle infused opener “Moroccan Gospel,” (French sung) “Fauché” about “broken days” (his “gift to Morocco”), “Bladi,” (home) ode to his mother “Yemma,” and love song “N’Zour,” plus cover-songs like “comedic” Moroccan lullaby “Sidi Hbibi” and “N’habbek” — an “homage” to (late) Jewish-Algerian singer Reinette L’Oranaise.
Ayrad, (making its Kitchener debut through Neruda Arts) is working on a sophomore album that will evolve into “more musical sounds.”
“It is going to be saxophone, trumpet, and more brass. And it is going to sound more bluesy, rock and funk. And less like a homage to the other music,” notes Ayrad’s creator adding he listens to all types of music, from B.B. King and Louis Armstrong to Khaled’s “incredible” cover of French classic “C’est la vie.”