Azmari: a musical flying carpet, ready for take-off

A ten-day, immersive trip through Istanbul was the stepping stone for Azmari towards new musical horizons and a hypnotic debut album that shows why the Brussels Ethio-jazz scene is alive and well.

In the wake of Nathan Daems and his band Black Flower, Azmari is the next Brussels Ethio-jazz band on Sdban Ultra, the record label from Ghent that bundles the eclectic vanguard of Belgian jazz and adds a mark of quality to it. “Especially the timbre and the specific rhythms of the genre inspire us,” says Basile Bourtembourg (27), who plays keyboards, percussion and now baglama with the six-piece band that, since its inception in 2015, more and more has started to incorporate oriental influences into their psych-funk and Afrobeat palette. “But we started as a reggae band – hence the dub influences. But we couldn't hold the oriental atmosphere and Ethiopian grooves back. There is not only the influence of the classics like Mulatu Astatke (after whose song the band named itself, Ed.). The European revival has also helped us greatly. At home, Nathan Daems has had a great impact, but we are also in contact with colleagues from France and Germany.”

“Our growth is not just supported by our label Sdban, who will let us release another album after this debut, but the European tour, which the Berlin booking agency Magnificent Music arranged for us in November 2019, also gave us the feeling that the environment surrounding us is constantly improving.”

Azmari was originally started by jazz guitarist Alexis Nootens, with whom Bourtembourg studied history at ULB. The original founder has since left the band, but has not stopped his own musical journey. Meanwhile, a French saxophonist and a Lebanese singer have left the ship – or more appropriately: the flying carpet. Others joined them instead.

The increased interest certainly marks a great step forward for the group, which had to finance the first pressing of debut EP Ekera (2019) using a crowd-funding platform. “Listeners are much more open to instrumental music,” continues Bourtembourg, who finished the album Sama'i with the band members in February 2020, just before the corona pandemic hit. “The greatest difference between Ekera and Sama'i is that, this time we thought more about the overall package. We had recorded the six tracks on the EP in record speed with little in the way of materials and resources. At that point, we just wanted a calling card. The album is much more coherent, with links between the nine songs. More so than in the past, we now look for the same rhythm and try to get the audience in a trance. There's less room for solos, but that results in more intense playing together.”

MOON AND DESERT
The change of focus is partly the result of a ten-day trip to Istanbul, where the band members soaked up Eastern influences at the invitation of the krautrock band Ayyuka. “They had previously been our guests in Brussels, where we jammed together. They had arranged a few shows for us, mainly in the centre of Istanbul, but also in Kadiköy, an Asian district across the water that gets a long tribute on Sama'i. It was often hectic. Every time we needed two large taxis to transport all the members and instruments, but that also gave the experience a nice local touch.”

Bourtembourg himself started to play baglama, as evidenced by the new single “Azalai”, his personal favourite on the album, which is shrouded in a layer of mystery by the extra stringed instrument. Together with the Turkish kaval, a shepherd's flute from Anatolia, which saxophonist Mattéo Badet started practising, this creates new sound colours. The mystical album-cover with moon and desert landscape by French visual artist Hugo Marchais further emphasises the transcendental atmosphere. “Don't go looking for too much cosmic philosophy behind it all, but we are influenced by Sun Ra Arkestra,” laughs Bourtembourg.

The “Space Is the Place” attitude also ties in nicely with the hypnotic experience with which the band wants to lift the listener to a higher level of consciousness. It is not for nothing that the album title refers to Sufi culture, which drummer Arthur Ancion immersed himself in during his anthropology studies. “But at the same time, it is a nod to Karl Hector & the Malcouns, a band from Munich that has a song with the same name,” Bourtembourg concludes with a sense of perspective. “Right now, we may be under the spell of Turkish sounds but maybe by our next album, we will develop a weakness for Japanese music. Anything is possible in an eclectic melting pot like Brussels.”

AZMARI: SAMA'I
Album release: 22/1 (Sdban Ultra)
Livestream presentation: 24/1, 15.00 via Facebook and YouTube