Les Îles du Désert

Loy Ehrlich was one multi-instrumental third of France’s esteemed Hadouk Trio, whose co-founder and fellow ex-Gong member, Didier Malherbe, guests on two of these ten self-penned numbers originally released pre-Hadouk in 1993. Between 2000 and 2010, Ehrlich was artistic director of the Gnawa et Musique du Monde festival in Essaouira, Morocco – which suggests where this world-music pioneer’s compass often points. The music here is in the vein of the Hadouk Trio, without Malherbe’s reedy signature duduk. That’s to say gentle, unchallenging, melodic stuff substantiated by delicate hand percussion, designed to soothe the soul and transport you to… well, desert isles. Ehrlich’s speciality is the stringed instrument in all its guises, including the three-stringed Gnawa bass lute or gimbri. Here, though, he plays everything apart from the reed and wind instruments contributed by occasional guests. Any singing as such is left to the guest Senegalese artist Wasis Diop, whose extraordinary hoarse vocals light up two of the more memorable compositions, ‘Le Vieux Lion’ and ‘Karkaba Blues’. While strictly speaking outside Babani Records’ habitual focus on music from the Indian Ocean, this album could set you adrift in a dhow on a calm sea towards the Maldives – and way beyond.