The ritual of Boujeloud – the half man / half goat dancing in front of flames on the closing night of the Master Musicians of Joujouka festival
The Master Musicians of Joujouka welcomed guests to their village home in the Ahl Serif mountains of Morocco earlier this year for three days over 3-5 June.
Over the course of the weekend the Mallimin performed their ancient Sufi trance to an audience of guests who had travelled from all over the world to join them.
Booking open now for Joujouka 23 2-4 June 2023
The Master Musicians of Joujouka annual Festival returns in 2023 with a limited number of 50 places – tickets available now.
The festival begins on Friday, 2nd June 2023 with pick up at the nearest city of Ksar El Kebir around noon and by arrangement drop-off on the morning of Monday, 5th June back to the train station at Ksar El Kebir.
Booking now open for the festival in Joujouka for 2023 – tickets make a great Christmas present. Ad as featured in the January 2023 edition of Wire magazine out now.Relaxing in the afternoon at the Madrassa tentDancing during an evening set by the Master Musicians of JoujoukaIn the village square in front of the tomb of Sidi Ahmed ShiekhAn afternoon performance on the tent stage, with Shiekh Ahmed Talha on kemanja (violin) The tebel section led by Ahmed El AttarUp close with Mohamed El AttarGuests dance to the sounds of ancient trance musicRhaitasBoujeloud taunts the surrounding crowd with his olive branch switchesAli Ezouglali playing lira in the kitchen at the MadrassaRhaitas led by El Touhami TalhaHeavy dronesMaking bread in JoujoukaBoujeloud dances onstageYoung Joujouki hit the dancefloorMohamed El Hatmi, aka Boujeloud, after his performance Crowd scene by the tent stage in the eveningA bedroom in one of the homes at JoujoukaDonkeys on the pathGet your motor running – the Mallimin provide a push for a hill start to help a biker guest get back on the roadThe village school bus at the gate of the MadrassaThe Master Musicians of Joujouka greet guests at the festival in their villageThe embers of the flames after Boujeloud lit up the jibal
The Tangier Interzone Edition 2 film festival starts from 22nd November 2022.
The Master Musicians of Joujouka are set to feature in two films scheduled for the Arab Media Lab film festival starting later this month.
The film programme, curated by Abdelaziz Taleb and produced by The Arab Media Lab project, features rare opportunities to view two films featuring the Master Musicians of Joujouka – Destroy All Rational Thoughtand Joujouka.
Tangier Interzone Edition 2 is set to take place from 22nd November to 19th December 2022 with screenings in Marrakesh and online.
The Arab Media Lab featured films celebrate the many artists, poets and intellectuals, including members of the Beat Generation, who visited Tangier to be inspired and “live the Moroccan dream”.
Festival organisers said: “Few lived a human dialogue with the locals, but most of them wanted to experience other things in order to expand the language of experience beyond the practical world.
“Via our film program: Tangier Interzone 2, we will try to explore this frontier between reality and fiction, and discuss the imaginary dimension of this same “reality”. This year we expand our program to works and artists who does not only have a direct link with the movement, but were inspired by it and lived the experience from within.”
Destroy All Rational Thought
Screening 29th November at 20.00 (Moroccan time) here
Frank Rynne, Terry Wilson, Joe Ambrose and Stuart McLean
Ireland, US, Morocco | 1994 | 50min
The great Beat Generation experiments took place in Tangier, the Moroccan city where William Burroughs, Brion Gysin, and the Moroccan painter Mohamed Hamri taught Jack Kerouac, Timothy Leary, and Allen Ginsberg how to live outside the law.
This film features one of the last interviews with Burroughs and previously unseen vintage footage of him in his prime during the 50s and early 60s.
Frank Rynne, Manager of the Master Musicians of Joujouka, said: “Destroy All Rational Thoughtdocuments the 1992 Here to Go Show which was held in Dublin, Ireland. The Here to Go Show derived its name from the book Here to Go where Brion Gysin spoke about his life and art with his friend and collaborator Terry Wilson. The show was an attempt to revitalise interest in Brion Gysin’s art and life six years after his death in Paris in 1986. The was the first major art exhibition featuring William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin’s paintings as well as those of their friend Mohamed Hamri, the Moroccan painter who introduced the Beats and Rolling Stone Brian Jones to his village and their musicians the legendary Master Musicians of Joujouka. It also featured a photograph exhibition by Ira Cohen and multiple live events. It was one of the last counterculture moments before the arrival of the internet.
“Gordon Campbell a long-time devotee of Gysin provided the funding and logistics for the show and the organisers, Rynne, Wilson and Ambrose cast their net out to ensure the collaboration and participation through various means of fans and friends of Gysin including Wiliam S. Burroughs, Iggy Pop, Bill Laswell, Felicity Mason, Ramuntcho Matta, Mohamed Hamri, Ira Cohen and more. A highlight of the show was the appearance of a small troupe of Master Musicians of Joujouka to whom Gysin had devoted much of his life, promoting and encouraging luminaries to visit.
“Destroy All Rational Thought documents various events at the Here to Go Show as well as including artistic performances by the participants and also uses then unseen rare archival footage shot by filmmaker Antony Balch of Burroughs, Gysin and others in the 1950s and 1960s. Some of this footage was reworked into Balch’s The Cut Ups and Towers Open Fire. The Dublin events were shot on lo-fi video and added to this are an array of artworks, images, spoken word and music from Material, The Baby Snakes, Master Musicians of Joujouka including a performance in collaboration with Irish artists such as Daniel Figgis and a live performance with The Baby Snakes featuring Thin Lizzy drummer Brian Downey.
“Destroy All Rational Thought also features extracts from one of the last interviews with William S. Burroughs conducted in Lawrence, Kansas by Corinna MacNeice, which was recorded as an introduction to the show and featured at the opening reception. In it Burroughs’ states that ‘Brion Gysin was the only man I ever respected’.”
Joujouka is a short film shot on Super 8 in Morocco in 1995 and 1996. Having brought the Master Musicians of Joujouka to Ireland for the 1992 Here to Go Show featuring William Burroughs and Brion Gysin artworks Rynne went to Morocco in 1994 to record the Master Musicians of Joujouka and ended up in Marrakesh also where he recorded the Gnoua troupe led by Mallim Hassan L’Gadiri.
Resulting in the CDs Joujouka Black Eyes by Master Musicians of Joujouka (Sub Rosa 1995) and Sufi; Moroccan Trance featuring Gnoua Brotherhood of Marrakesh and Master Musicians of Joujouka (Sub Rosa 1996).
This short evocatively follows the path of the Beats and Brian Jones from Tangier to Joujouka and on to Marrakesh relying on music and repetition to evoke the spirit of Sufi trance in the Morocco of the mid-1990s.
In Joujouka, Mohamed Hamri, the self-styled, Painter of Morooco, adds his presence.
The film was shown at many counterculture events in the 1990s including at the ICA and the Horse Hospital in London and at performance by Master Musicians of Joujouka and the rai hop art group Islamic Diggers.
For more information about Arab Media Lab film festival click here
The Master Musicians of Joujouka festival Joujouka 23 takes places 2-4 June 2023. For more information and to book your tickets click here
The Master Musicians of Joujouka – in Joujouka, October 2022
Master Musicians of Joujouka Festival 2023
After two years of absence and a small offering this year, The Master Musicians of Joujouka annual Festival is back in 2023 with a limited number of 50 places.
The festival begins on Friday, 2nd June 2023 with pick up at the nearest city of Ksar El Kebir around noon and by arrangement drop-off on the morning of Monday, 5th June back to the train station at Ksar El Kebir.
The Master Musicians of Joujouka – in Joujouka, October 2022by Frank Rynne
Ticket price is 485 Euro which includes pick up at Ksar El Kebir, accommodation, three meals a day and drop-off on 5th June.
Also included is three days and nights of music and a full immersion into the Joujouka experience.
Guests stay with Master Musicians and their families.
Performances are held at the Madrassa of the Master Musicians of Joujouka in their village.
