With his new project Mattias De Craene enters a sonic world that feels both intimate and monumental. Born out of travels through Morocco and Brussels, this project explores the rhythms, chants, and spiritual dimensions of the Gnawa tradition while resonating with De Craene’s own search for depth and presence. Guembri, qraqeb, call-and-response vocals, saxophone, loops, and electronics merge into a trance-inducing dialogue: ritualistic, elemental, and dreamlike. The result is a space where listening becomes immersion, where tradition and imagination converge, and where music unfolds as a shared experience of reflection and wonder.

The artistic journey of Mattias De Craene is marked by a remarkable sense of coherence. As a central voice within Nordmann and MDC III, he developed a physical, rock-infused jazz language driven by propulsion, intensity, and an almost trance-like collective energy. A period of personal upheaval, marked by burnout, tinnitus, and depression, gradually triggered a more introspective direction. The saxophone evolved from an expressive instrument into a breathing, textural presence. In his solo work, De Craene intertwines saxophone, electronics, loops, and minimalist compositional forms into a cinematic and contemplative sound world, where repetition, resonance, and silence slow perception itself. Rooted in ambient music and introspection, his work values attention over impact and precision over excess.

Black Koyo is a Brussels-based ensemble and one of the most compelling exponents of the Gnawa tradition outside Morocco. Led by maalem Hicham Bilali, the group brings guembri, qraqeb, and call-and-response singing to life with trance-like intensity and ritual precision. Their music is both deeply rooted and strikingly contemporary: earthy rhythms and incantatory vocal lines intertwine to create immersive sonic landscapes in which ancestral resonances and contemporary imagination reinforce one another.