Exclusive.
The pélerinage of Bono Bono Vox, in front of the doors of Riad Yacout, in Fès. (JEAN BERRY) Surrounded of the producers Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno, the U2 group recorded during two weeks in a riad of Fès the outlines of its next album, announced for 2008... TelQuel met Bono for an exclusive interview. U2 with Fès, one did not really want to believe in it in the beginning, but it was indeed true. If information were published by several Internet sites, whereas the group was on the point of leaving, Sunday June 3, the secrecy had been well kept. And while the preparations of the Festival of the sacred musics beat their full with two steps from there, in the buildings of the Foundation Spirit of Fès, some passers by only were astonished by the guitars resonant in front of the entry by Riad Yacout, and the presence of the one of the greatest groups of rock'n'roll in the world passed almost unperceived. A little further on the place, the old women papotaient and the children played under the sun of this beginning of summer, as if nothing were not. They did not suspect either that Bernadette and Jacques Chirac placed with a few meters from there. It is thus in a riad Batha district of the spiritual capital of the kingdom that the Irish quartet came ressourcer two weeks during. Time to put out of box the first outlines of a twelfth opus, whose exit is announced for the next year. Around them, the historical producers Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno. First worked on several albums of Bob Dylan, the second was the assistant of David Bowie at the end of the Seventies, before becoming the guru of the experimental music. Very beautiful world. U2 and Fès, a history of U2 love and Fès, it is a history which goes up at the beginning of the Nineties. There the group, then to the apogee of its career, after The Joshua Tree and Rattle and Hum, came to turn the surrealist and psychedelic clip of Mysterious Ways, one of individual of Achtung baby, under the direction of the realizer Stephan Sednaoui. About fifteen years later, arrived out of jet private and preceded by two semitrailers material studio, the Irish formation returned to pose its amplifiers in the médina of Fès, between a concert on the steps of the Palate of the Festivals in Cannes and a turning of the Bono singer by the top of G8. Invited editor of the last number of Vanity Fair, devoted to Africa and published with a score of different covers, of Oprah Winfrey in Mohamed Ali, the singer, known for his standpoint in favour of Africa and nominated twice for the Nobel Prize of Peace, met Wednesday last Nicolas Sarkozy there, in company of Bob Geldof and Youssou Dour, about poverty in Africa. A new meeting with the new French president, and another with George W Bush, were announced for the following days. "I have the impression that that never has étéaussi easy to compose", testified Bono, a little before the departure of the group of the capital mérinide. "Fès is a place crowned for the musicians. We come here to pay homage to this city, and especially to learn ", continued the singer, on a mystical tonality: "We are in pilgrimage". Ten pieces on the whole were born at this session, which recorded (a first) the participation of local musicians. A player of oud in particular and percussionnists, resulting brotherhoods gnawi and soufie. On the table, between the grids of agreements, one could read For Your Love or One Bird, titles undoubtedly provisional of two their new pieces. A discrete stay, but not completely: placed to the Jamaï Palate, the group went to foot to the concert of the Iranian singer Parissa and the whole of Dastan, on poems of Jalal-eddine Roumi, causing the curiosity of some spectators, passers by and tourists. Close to the musicians, one saw the Rania queen of Jordan, with which Bono had given a few days earlier Frontline Award for Human Rights, in Dublin. The small history even says that it passed one evening and shared a dinner with the group, and than Bono sang for it. Happy queen...
Exclusive interview.
You already turned a clip in Fès. Does this city inspire to you? The thing which always strikes me in Morocco, they are certain similarities with the Irish music and the culture. The singers from here have a great talent, I can learn from them, and they point out certain traditions from on our premises to me, like that of Seanos (traditional dance accompanied by songs has capella and of percussions, note). There are many of other similarities, like the pentatonic ranges. We smell ourselves very well with this music and these people. And then Fès is like a place crowned for the music and the musicians, therefore we come to also to pay homage him, to inspire to us, learn from the rates/rhythms. We are really happy here to be. It appears that you recorded with Moroccan artists. It is a first with Arab or North-African musicians? Indeed. We received a player of oud and musicians gnawa and soufis. They were large Masters, it was a very special environment. Now, we do not know really what all that will become. We wrote ten songs here, in two weeks. They are not completely finished, but I have the impression that that never has was also easy to compose, so much the things ran themselves. We record in the court of a riad, under a square of blue sky... Did you attend the Festival of the sacred musics? I saw this evening this fantastic Iranian singer, Parissa, it was really something. But we did not almost see anything of the Festival. We came for that also, but finally, we a little let ourselves go in our own music. Do you have an idea of the topics which you will approach on this disc? What I do, it is that I wait until the music says to me what I will sing. I improvise much, and I really do not know where we go... It is only then that I put myself at the writing. We are a little as in pilgrimage, feet naked, and we really do not know where the music will take us along. You listen to mystical and spiritual musics? I said it, the sounds from here us are rather familiar. And then our music was always rather extatic, in a certain direction. We listen, we learn... In the position where we are, people see us more like professors than like students. But it is not as that which we see ourselves and which we see the things. We will see what it will leave there, but I am rather excited. It appears that Tinariwen will open for you in Dublin. You are interested in the Tuareg rock'n'roll? I really appreciated them. They come from a very difficult situation. There is a great difference when people sing for their life, rather than to eat. Really, they sing and play for their life, and it is something which one can feel in their music. It is particularly The Edge which made me discover this music. It is true that this kind of music represents a breath, that I can feel, who can make evolve/move my way of singing. It is the discovery new tone, new harmonies. We try to inspire to us, but just a little bit. We do not want to finish like tourists. A word on the situation in Ireland. Does that seem to better go since Bloody Sunday? The situation in Ireland testifies to what the people prepared with the compromise can carry out. The compromise is a word that people often neglect, that they do not want to really look at opposite. They would not have. It is perhaps one of the most interesting words, in all the languages besides. It shows how each one can leave the place with the other, the capacity of the human beings to evolve/move the ones around the others. Thirty years ago very difficult, but during this last decade, much of compromise made it possible to bring to peace to Ireland. It is fantastic. You go to G8... Which are you your motivations, which messages wish to make pass? I will be there to point out the promises to them that they made us, two years ago. I want that they know that the world looks at them. There is to make much, and it is my job. I am a little like a foghorn... And like a bulldog too.
, come on, be bold and release them in 2007 along with some great leftovers. Oh well, still stuff to be excited about.
10 songs in 2 weeks ? 
