Aiwa bio naufalle

“…witty, adventurous and addictive…“ THE OBSERVER MUSIC MONTHLY - June 2004 (Charlie Gillett)
“…a work of pure emotion that needs no translation…” NEW INTERNATIONALIST - August 2004 (Louise Gray)
“…a frantic melange of Arabic classical music and hip hop…” MOJO - July 2004 (David Hutcheon)
“…the sound of generations and nations merging…“ WAVE MAGAZINE - May 2004 (Dina Cohen)
Aïwa is a collective created to ignore artificial borders between musical styles.
It was founded in 1998 by Wamid and Naufalle, two Iraqi brothers brought up in
France, who were looking for mixing their musical practice (bass for Wamid and
percussions, guitar and Arabic rap for his brother) to their growing interest for
electronical music they were producing. They’re trying to make the classical
Arabic music heard from their parent’s records (Om Kalsoum, Abdel Halim
Hafez, Fairuz…) meeting with the western music.
This collective has been completed by : Majdo (drums and programming), Waldo
(flute), Mathias (guitar and special effects) Koulechov (turntables), Swank (ragga
toasting), Severine (female singer and programming as well) and Gaël
(saxophone and ethnic instruments). Their meeting in 2002 with the Canadian
label Wikkid records is a milestone for the band with the release of their first
album in 2003, licensed worldwide : (Canada, United Kingdom, Germany,
Poland, Spain, Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Egypt, United Arab
Emirates, Lebanon, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain,
Algeria…)
Aïwa keeps on playing live electronical stuff in a band and made more than 150 concerts all around France but also in
Switzerland, Morocco, Spain, Czech Republic, Hungary, England and Italy. This allowed them meeting several artists as Tricky
for a jam session or a band of traditional morocco trance whom they’re preparing a record with.
# 1 track on the « World 2004 » compilation
2004 – Wrasse Records ( UK/ Compiled by Charlie Gillett )
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# 1 album
Released 2003 - Wikkid records
# 6 tracks EP "Yi Yi "
September 2002 - Wikkid records
# 3 tracks EP "Azeri"
2001 – Kerig distribution
# 1 track on the «Alternative Novo Dub » compilation
2000 – Hi subway recordings
CONCERTS
Montreux Jazz Festival 2001, Transmusicales 2000, Marrakech Fusion 2001,
Printemps Bourges 2001, Astrolabe, Batofar, Nouveau Casino, Olympic…
Concerts with Rachid Taha, High Tone, DJ Vadim, Meï Teï Shô, Zebda, Zenzile…
Management/Tour :
Jérôme - +33 (0)6 72 70 54 06 – [email protected]
Aïwa - c/o Sensitive - 51, bd de l'
Egalité - 44100 Nantes
www.aiwa.fr.fm / [email protected]
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Aïwa – UK Press
MOJO - JULY 2004 - Album review by David Hutcheon
They’ve been around for six years, but this is their debut album from the French-Iraqi So Solid Crew or Asian Dub
Foundation, a frantic melange of Arabic classical music and hip hop, with scatter gun vocals, turntables beats, heavy
basslines, ragga toasting, string samples, flutes and hand drums. Something tells me they will be astonishing live.
WAVE - MAY/JUNE 2004 - Reviewed by Dina Cohen
NEW INTERNATIONALIST - JULY 2004 - Album reviewed by louise Gray - Aïwa by Aïwa
While France in recent years has proved a crucible of boiling up some amazing sounds from the collision of Arabic, African
and DJ cultures, there have been few bands that have really pushed the envelope. Aïwa, founded in 1998 in the French
City of Rennes by Iraqi bassist and rapper Naufalle do just that. Their self-titled debut album is one where you learn to
expect surprises. It opens simply enough: an Arabic wail of Yiyi gives way to woodwind and drums before it is caught up
by Severine, a chanteuse whose darkly moody vocals constitute one of the highlights. And then she is gone:
overtaken by fast paced grooves, blistering rap from Swank and , from DJ Koulechov, rimshot beats that ricochet with
energy of their own. At other times, sounds emerge that have an imagination and association of their own.
Could that be a coiled spring being stoked on Azeri ? And what is the dispassionate lyric a text from a medical
pharmacology book, perhaps being intoned on Poz ?If a minor downside is that the lyrics aren’t always audible and that the
sleeve offers no notes, then it’s made up for on Aïwa’s nine-minute closer, Baghdad. A rampage of groove, rap and
prayer, it¹s a work of pure emotion that needs no translation.
DJ Magazine - ‘Beats & Breaks’ playlist late November 2004
AÏWA - 6th on playlist
Brilliant French / Iraqi live band, with prominent hip-hop and dub influences topped by good vocalists and
traditional Iraqi sounds.