By Gisele Turner - Tonight - Johannesburg, South AfricaWednesday, November 28, 2007
Dhafer Youssef opens his arms, lifts his chest to the heavens, slowly lets his head roll back and allows a stream of pure sound to emerge from his heart. There are no words, we need none.
The sound that he produces is an expression of divine love and it is transcendental and transportive.
It is no surprise to read that he subscribes to Sufism, the esoteric aspect of Islam that concentrates on personal spiritual development through devotion.
This kind of pure sound has a resonance that touches the deepest yearning within to merge in mystic universality and Youssef performs his extraordinary compositions as an act of love.
Needless to say I counted myself fortunate to be a member of the intimate audience that attended his gig at the Alliance Française on Friday evening.
The restless weather calmed, against the odds.
Youssef played with three Norwegians who brought their own kind of pristine energy: an out-of-the-body bass player in Auden Erlien, an incredible drummer in Rune Arnesen, who wielded his fat brushes with a startling combination of contained energy and wild power.
Eivend Aarset, on guitar and electronics, is a genius with a mind full of open spaces and meticulously chosen sound details decorating it.
I am still recovering from that gig, and when I feel the world is too much with me I play Youssef's first album, Malak, especially the tracks The Sand Child [L'Enfant du Sable] and The Blind Angel [L'Ange Aveugle] .
[Visit Dhafer Youssef at http://www.dhaferyoussef.com/ and listen to samples,
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