Almufaraka – Master of Disorder (Circum-Disc, 2024)

By Fotis Nikolakopoulos

Using the voice as a main instrument is not something new obviously. Using three voices (here by Gaelle Debra, Patrick Guionnet and Maryline Pruvost) and a drum set (here by Peter Orins who runs Circum-Disc) is, even today that everything has been done and experimented with, still a choice that differentiates this cd from the experimental milieu, one that could even be described as radical.

The voice of course still is the primary and easiest way for any human (and non human) being to express itself. Modern pop culture and the eagerness of the society of the spectacle for myths have created a clean cut version of what the human voice should sound. Trying to overcome all this is not an easy task. Quite the contrary I believe, such a choice of instrumentation still raises many eye brows within the field of experimental music.

While listening to Master of Disorder it easily came to my mind Themroc, and anarchic French movie from the early 70’s by director Claude Faraldo. There the great Michel Piccoli plays a modern caveman who, rebelling against modern society never talks, but only makes noises. Listening to this CD, the listener can certainly and easily make comparisons.

But apart from the labeling of the music my aforementioned comparison creates, all eight tracks of the cd are excursions into the unknown guts of the human voice, with big doses of humor, laughter, joy and anger. Peter Orins with his drumset play the role of the glue that holds this fragile collision together, while, at the same time, he seems like the shaman that initiates the ritual.

The music, if you want to call it like that, on Master of Disorder, is far away from almost everything that is considered experimental nowadays, but heavily incorporates magic words like freedom and improvisation. In each track I had the cathartic feeling of being totally unable to comprehend where this would go next. The combination of the sheer power by the three vocalists and their willingness to experiment in every second of the cd make it a joyous but also so urgently needed recording that goes against any kind of mannerism.

The CD came out really late in 2024 (bad for me I didn’t review it earlier) and I listened to it in 2025. So, it has every right to fit in my best of for 2025. And it will.

Listen here:

@koultouranafigo