‘Sufi Night’

▸ 20:00 - 21:00 | Deba

Steeped in Sufi spirituality, the deba is a cult and cultural practice performed at weddings, on the return of pilgrims from Mecca, at village celebrations... In this choir of women, aged between 16 and 62, from Mayotte, thirteen voices unite or respond to each other. White and purple dresses in unison, hands painted with henna lace, their faces radiant. Airy, vibrant and luminous, their voices mingle with the beating of drums and tambourines, drawing us into a gentle, sensual hypnosis. Singular and irresistibly bewitching.

▸ 21:30 - 23:00 | Al-Kindi Ensemble​​​​​​​

​​​​​​​In 2023, the Al-Kindi Ensemble celebrates forty years of existence, forty years of marriage with traditional music from the Arab world. Founded in 1983 by Julien Weiss, Al-Kindi - today a benchmark in the genre - pays tribute, through its name, to the great philosopher, mathematician and music theorist Abu Yusuf Al-Kindi. The war in Syria, with its forced exiles, closed borders and the untimely death of Julien Weiss, has had a major impact on the ensemble's activities. Under the musical direction of Adel Shams el Din, a new group was formed around the original nucleus, with Sheikh Hamed Daoud, hymnode of the Great Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, and Tunisian Khadija el Afritt on qanun, as soloists, joined by two backing singers, Diaa Daoud and Mohamed Husam Takrori. Last March saw the release of the album Transe soufie des derviches tourneurs de Damas. It was the first to be recorded and produced since the death of Julien Weiss. Part prayer, part invocation, part song of praise, this opus is deeply marked by a mystical-religious emotion, magnified on stage by the ecstatic dance of the whirling dervishes.