BIOGRAPHY

Fans of Electro Maloya, under the auspices of Gnawa: set off on a round-the-world trip starting at Réunion Island! Your guides: four young virtuosos, pillars of the group Sofaz. There is only one condition: no settling into a comfy position, even if you’re on a cushy sofa! You’ve got a date with an explosive group whose senses are open to the sea spray of the Indian Ocean, the African motherland and the “Pink City,” Toulouse. What could be better? Formed in 2012, Sofaz aims to spread these influences around the globe. True bohemian adventures bursting with enthusiasm, the quartet doesn’t let gloominess and political disenchantment get them down—on the contrary! They carefully dispel it with anti-capitalist lyrics, in which power is ruled by musical notes. As they say, we all have a role to play in improving our earthly existence, so what are we waiting for?

Of mixed backgrounds, Thierry, Edouard, Jamal and Siaka are fundamentally alter-globalists, embodying the ‘70s-era movement in their own way, with a message of peace, of meeting the other face-to-face without hatred or judgment. Liberty and emancipation, an ode to those forebears who fought for our freedoms that opens the solemn hymn “Mèrsi Zansèt.” Like toes dug into the sand, the warmth of Réunion’s creole can be felt in the playful  “Mand sat ou vé.” Timeless musicians, the four guys that make up Sofaz delivers with rapturous conviction a rare form of music, and through their rhythms and the guembri—quintessential Gnawa instrument—to invoke the vast desert spaces so much a part of the Moroccan musical tradition. 

Clear-eyed about the planet’s troubles, Sofaz nevertheless offers a natural, organic trancelike way to channel it and, under the guidance of these four passionate musicians with radiant smiles,

creates the ideal position with which to convey and celebrate interculturality.

During their concerts, the raw Mayola energy backed by synths and Mandinka or Malagasy stringed instruments, takes the audience on board the SOFAZ Trans-Electro-Acoustic for a trip filled with energy and strong emotions.

Réunion Island, Burkina Faso, France, Morocco… with Sofaz, the  richness of these cultures is expressed in a spirit of sharing and respect. Promoting traditional cultures and languages, they set an example of harmonious coexistence.

Like Réunion Island itself, Sofaz a represents a melting pot of cultures and knowledge, where song, music, dance and poetry express shared hopes and anger, dreams and realities, by eliciting that trancelike feeling that helps to uplift and unite us.