Laidback and slowly unfolding psychedelic sufi vibe. The Space Shifter House was Ken Kesey's house in Oregon, but in my imagination it can be many places, where rituals take place and spirits are evoked. This photo is from Jajouka, inside the mausoleum of the holy man, Sidi Ahmed Sherk. All played by HolyFireGnawa.

The Space Shifter House

In 1997 I finally made it to Jajouka, the fabled village near Ksar El Kebir in the Jaballah mountains of North Morocco. Famous for illustrous foreigners, but more interesting because of the way the Master Musicians Of Jajouka under the leadership of the Attar family has preserved the ancient music. For the next years we returned for the Festival of Boujeloud and countless other occasions under the great leadership of Bachir Attar, the current Maâlem in charge. This track is inspired by the music of jaballah musicians, who still play the styles of taqtouqa, aïta and aissaouï like you see it in Jajouka.
Djebel Tissouka is the great mountain behind Chefchaouen, and I want to be there so bad. In the mountain air of the Jaballah with the calling of prayer from many minarets in the distance and the ambience and laughter of the jibli people.  This track is played with a liera, I was given by Bachir Attar and with the original drums of the late drum maker in Ksar El Kebir, all played to the best of my ability by yours truly. Added is inspiration from the trance music of the Jilala Sufi Brotherhood with the percussion going to a climax before settling back in the groove. Enjoy..

Djebel Tissouka Revisited

The song as I like it the best. Still not finished, but the ambience is there and the two 12-string western guitars, of which I let one go. Still the sound remains here. Originally written in 1991 in Copenhagen.

Imaginary Ocean Chorale

Originaly entitled Song For Hans And Jerry it was dedicated to two world travelers, who met at Nuweiba in 1981 and set out on bikes for Sturgis, South Dakota. Hans was a woman from Amsterdam and Jerry had been an early Hell's Angel and was now a wise old man. But they clicked and were part of our group of much younger people on the beach at Nuweiba by the Red Sea in the spring of 1981. The title was taken from Gloria's Trip by James Leo Herlihy, from a quote saying: We Are The People Our Parents Warned Us Against. I was a 24 year old kid from Copenhagen equipped with a western guitar and a bagful of songs busking everywhere and the songs kept coming. The song was written later that year in Copenhagen and was about the friends, I met, including Kiwi Robyn, English Brian and German Sabine, who are mentioned in the text, but this recording is from around 2012. I play everything..
Writing these notes I am at Hotel Gallia in Marrakech at Room 1. Apart from a letter, I never heard from Hans and Jerry again, but their lust for life and the dream of open skies will stay with me forever.

We Are The People

Inspired by the Haha region in Morocco, where they perform the Ahwash and play the Awad flute. This is my own take on it, probably also inspired by Aïta Jabaliya. Still a love letter to the area south of Essaouira playing the special ney flute, which I just got down there..

TambuAwad

From we met she was one of the most important, loved and influential people in my life. Our daughter is forever our legacy, but she had to split this form almost five years ago after a fierce and long fight with cancer. In her last years Vani took up playing duduk like me, as well as clarinet, and when she passed, she wanted me to have her Selmer clarinet. This is my first creation done in the autumn of 2017. The picture of the poppies was from a field next to Vani's house taken at dusk around midsummer after I had been down to say goodbye. Vani passed on July 1, 2017.

Purple She Said

Indian journey like a ride with the Pink City Express to Rajastan. Playing my big and deep Indian Bansuri bamboo flute. Adding dreamy keys and a dhool beat like a Bhangra street celebration passing by..

Younes Inspiration

I miss my brother, Swami Anand Bindu, who passed way too early a few years ago. A musical traveller with a gentle touch on the guitar. This track is all me, TH alias Swami Anand Sanjaya. Let's take off and fly in the way of the white clouds.

Orange Vibration

In A Minute She Sleeps

Hen Om Hjørnet

A cruise like scating on top of the vast sand dunes of Erg Chigaga outside M'Hamid Ghislane in Southern Morocco. Blown kawal flutes meet with deep bansuri, while the undercurrent is constantly simmering. A trance dance of happiness while the sensitive drawn out notes of a slide touching a Greco Les Paul all played by Torben Holleufer. We end at dawn with the morning sounds right after the Fajr call of prayer..

Erg Chigaga Horizon

Introducing the Stellan Bengtsson of Avantgarde Rock...

Always Borderline

The Departed

The Departed - a Table Tennis Tango

Inspired by my deep love for the Northern Morocco music styles of the mountains and countryside entitled aïta jabaliya or taqtouqa jabaliya. The track a bit rough and fresh, actually recorded in Copenhagen. It is a homage to Morocco. Ahle Sereef is the area, where villages like Jahjouka and Amegadi are. And Sanjaya is one of my names. The picture is from the holy sufi shrine of the qotb of Islam, Moulay Abdeslam ben Mchich, situated on a mountaintop in the Jaballah area.

Ahle Sereef Sanjaya

HeyJoseph

Words loosely adapted from old tourist poster about the Danish royal family. It was in my brother's room, and we used to practise English reading the text. Then we take off with congas and African drums, while the E-bow guitar starts the journey ending in a serene stillness, where the wails like blues seeks to penetrate.
In the photo: My late father Jørgen Holleufer (1928-2020) in a photo taken around 1935.

Descendents

Gangotri Revisited

Walkabout

Foucauld Place is Hotel de Foucauld in Marrakech. The initial track was composed by TH, but the added electric ukulele guitar of Peter Chilton changed it a lot with it's laidback groove. The Indian Bansuri flute is off course played by TorbenHolleufer. The picture is of Marrakech at dusk just before the Magreb call of prayer from the mighty minaret of the Koutoubia mosque, which is right across from the hotel. Enjoy.

Foucauld Place feat. Peter Chilton

Always drawn to that space between. The nothingness, the void, the reality of a pause, where the I disappears. Still this track is also a celebration. Let the beat lift you and the guitars make you soar.

The Space Between

Inspired by the huge Haha Amazigh area south of Essaouira in Morocco. But recorded in Northern Europe fresh back from another Magrebi sojourn. Let the beat transport you and let the Awad flutes make your heart soar.

Hello Sunshine

Getting back to the habit of doing recordings in hotel rooms. I am at my room at Hotel Atlas in Tangier, a hotel which always is my base in this fair city on the northern tip of Africa. Down below cars are racing, horns honking and up here on the fourth floor my indian flute soars and all was created within the last hour. I hope that listeners appreciate the freshness of this piece and can open your hearts to this? With all my love.

Room 308

Inspired by trips to Jajouka in North Morocco and the ritual of Boujeloud, but played with Turkish ney flutes and a tebel drum from Ksar El Kbir near to the village of Jajouka yet in a style similar to the music played in those mountains, but also with a hint of Jilali Sufi Tradition and elements of rock. It is a homage to a way of life and a music, which keeps inspiring everybody, who has taken the journey into the heart of darkness.

Primal Screams Of The Goat God

Dreamy track played and composed by me. It is a tribute to a most dear love, simple as that. I play my Telecaster in the Open G tuning with a Dunlop Derek Trucks slide.

Blues for Vani

Fresh track combining samples, hamadcha percussion, berimbau, chinese flute and e-bow guitar, township choir as just some ingredients. Basic parts done at Hotel Mamora, Tangier Old Medina, Morocco in May 2018 with ebow-guitar in Copenhagen later that summer. Mastered in Copenhagen in Jan. 2022.

Interzone Intertwine

A Marrakech early morning captured and enhanced. A homage to muezzins of Moroccan cities and the devotees who find their way to prayer. Unknown muezzins performing. Produced and conceived by HolyfireGnawa

Echoes of Koutoubia

The gentle sound of an Indian flute with the ambience of a gnawa leela. And spacy distant keys. The bansuri flute was bought by Peter Chilton in Kathmandu years ago. I never travel without it. The picture shows Zaida Gania, moqadema of the Zaouia Sidna Bilal in Essaouira, one of my main inspirations in Gnawa.

IndianLila

Recorded at Hotel Molino, which was owned by Steve Matkin and situated in the Subanin area of the old medina of Chefchaouen in Morocco. A wonderful and lush place with a garden created by Steve, who was a wonderful cosmopolitical man of both Lebanese and American descent. Known as Habibi, because he named everybody he liked this, which in arabic means My Beloved. 
The track was recorded a month before Steve succumbed to cancer on the eve, where I with his son and a friend had taken him from Amsterdam back to his beloved sanctuary in Morocco. The tune is dedicated to Steve, and he heard it and liked it a lot. HolyfireGnawa plays everything..Photo by Nancy Burke.

Steve's Tune

I used to stay at Hotel Ras El Maa in Chefchaouen, where best friends Bilal Boughalal and Bilal Bourrouhou would hang out, with the former working there. Bilal Boughalal was fast becoming a master on darbouka and with the local Aissaoua Sufi fraternity. Then they left: Boughalad for Japan and Bourouhou for a job as teacher. Now I have put together the mix from that meeting more than 10 years ago, where my bansuri flute was the other element. Enjoy!

Dancing Darbouka

Dancing Darbouka - feat. Bilal Boughalad & Bilal Bourrouhou

Sufi Caravan is a cross between inspirations from the Sufi Brotherhoods of Morocco, especially from Gnawa (Gnaoua), Hamadcha, Aissaoua and Jilali as well as western psychedelic and straight singer/somgwriting. There are no limits and the music is an invitation to enter the trance and meditation and dance with the spirits.

Sufi Caravan

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