VI.BE

The rich musical Sufi tradition has been transmitted orally in Aleppo for decades. Nowadays, the Sufi masters who kept the secrets of this musical tradition are gradually disappearing from the scene, threatening to lose a treasure of songs forever.

As guardians of this rich cultural heritage, JAWA offers a contemporary take by introducing instruments into a repertoire historically performed a cappella. More than a performance, it is an act of cultural resistance and spiritual continuity, preserving a fragile tradition by making it resonate anew across borders and generations. JAWA presents the traditional musical pieces from its personal perspective and its own vision, while preserving the classical way of performing Sufi muwashahat with its complex rhythms and oriental maqams.

Rooted in Sufi philosophy, where music and ritual guide the soul toward divine unity, JAWA's musicians are accompanied by the whirling of a Mevlevi dervish. Sufi whirling is a commonplace meditation practice, through which dervishes aim to reach the source of all perfection. This is done by leaving behind one's nafs, or personal desires, by paying attention to the music, focusing on God, and spinning one's body in repetitive circles, which has been seen as a symbolic imitation of planets withinside the Solar System orbiting the sun. A dervish practices multiple rituals, the primary of which is the dhikr, a remembering of Allah. The dhikr involves recitation of devotional Islamic prayer, and comes with dancing and whirling, in order to reach a state of ecstatic trance.

The musicians:

• Khaled Alhafez – Voice (SY-BE)
• Yousef Zayed – Ud (PS-FR)
• Youssef Nassif – Qanun (SY-DE)
• Tammam Alramadan – Ney (SY-BE)
• Marwan Fakir – Violin (MA-FR)
• Simon Leleux – Percussion (BE)
• Hatim Aljamel – Dervish (SY-DE)