press

Smadj signs for Label Bleu in France……

Smadj's next release will be DuOuD, an oud duet with Mehdi Haddab (EKOVA) and electronic beats. The album is to be recorded in May 2002 and will be release next September or October 2002

Smadj will produce for Warner Jazz the next album by Laurent de Wilde (well known jazz pianist in France)

Smadj has also been recording since January 2002 his 3rd album "Yaacov experiences, take it and drive" which is a live album...

Smadj has produced the new CD by Art Konik "Vendetta Society" (Comet, January 2002) and is playing dates with him on stage

 

Last album 'Equilibriste' (Melt 2000, 1999) - New album 'New Deal' (Electric Melt, 2000) "Album of the year…" - Charlie Gillett, BBC London Live

"Equilibriste was an awesome record. Powered by the heavy duty dynamics of drum'n'bass and refined by the classical Arabic scales of his childhood, Smadj's sound is a glorious example of a multicultural background expressing itself with no concessions to facile world music formulae. 'Equilibriste' made Talvin Singh's OK sound average...'New Deal' picks up confidently where his debut left off; the programming is solidified with techno and house resonances, but has the organic fluidity you'd expect of someone who understands the rudiments of improvisation. Consequently, it has all the pounding, pneumatic power of early electro pioneers, such as Afrika Bambaata, as well as the flourish of Eastern-tinged jazz. This is 21st century music; wholly conversant with new technology yet effortlessly in tune with the timeless tenets of rhythm and melody. - Essential.

'Album of The Month' - MARIE CLAIRE - October 2000

"Swirling North African violins and ethnic vocals combine with house beats and keyboard effects to create a rich, lush melange of maghrebine and millennial music." - FUTURE MUSIC

"...hauls in opera, hip hop, jungle, traditional African rhythms and jazz. The ruff rattling beats-battering of Station Mir, the hyperactive Equilibriste and the haunting flute-led Etrange expend the sonic envelope to devastating effect. Impossibly brilliant." - i-D MAGAZINE

"...haunting bells and chimes combine with gently stumbling beats and a break to send Portishead digging even deeper into the crates. An unassuming gem" - DJ MAGAZINE

"There is an unfathomable depth of feeling in Smadj's melodies, somehow they feel both ancient and futuristic." - ECHOES

"A virtuoso in crafts both ancient and modern" - THE WIRE