“Feenkoum” EP
The Dar Haleshla Feenkoum? (“Where are you?” in Arabic) EP merges Moroccan Sufi traditions with house music and dub reggae. Delta Patch’s production elevates Haleshla’s percussive and vocal roots into a hypnotic dancefloor journey.
Each track carves its own sonic universe, yet the EP coheres as a bold reimagining of “Moroccan house”—best heard to be believed.
Dar Haleshla is a brand new project featuring the duo “Haleshla” (world music master percussionist and session musician Simon Webster and Moroccan Sufi vocalist and percussionist Mouna Eddrou) and innovative French producer and musician Delta Patch.
Inspired by the trance rhythms, melodies and instruments of Moroccan music, the EP “Feenkoum” features Mouna Eddrou’s haunting Sufi vocals, Simon’s blistering percussion licks, dub reggae sound effects and a driving house beat and production, creating a heady, hypnotic mix.
Loosely described as “Moroccan house music”, and potentially put in the category of “Afro house”, Dar Haleshla has a unique sound and style and needs to be heard to be believed!
Dar Haleshla comes under the banner of “studio projects” as it was entirely put together in the studio with no live takes but also because it has yet to see the light of day as a “live” project but it’s in the pipeline!
Dar Haleshla: Shems
Why house music?
“Haleshla” is a duo of traditional Moroccan music, albeit re-visited. So why the move to house music?
Firstly, Simon has always been interested in house music due to his work with percussion and drum loops. While recording and putting together his library of loops, he always bore in mind who he was making the loops for: musicians and producers essentially making music in their…houses.
The second reason are the similarities between Haleshla’s trance style of drumming and singing and the same repetitive qualities found in house music.
And lastly, when Simon and Mouna’s son came across a house music track by a Moroccan artist and remarked that the opening groove sounded pretty good, Simon realized that not only could he do the same but that he had gigabytes worth of percussion loops that would work really well with house music.
As Simon says “Some would say that it was a musical epiphany moment, others that I saw it as a way to finally make music that our kids would listen to!”
Have a listen to Dar Halshla and decide for yourself…..
Dar Haleshla: Feenkoum?
Feenkoum? is the fourth and last single from the Dar Haleshla EP which takes its name. A darker, moodier sounding track, “Feenkoum?” (which means “where are you?” in Arabic) contains “Dar Haleshla”’s signature percussive and vocal elements with house music beats and arrangements, and dub reggae sound effects.
Dar Haleshla: Sidi El Gnaoui
Sidi El Gnaoui is the first single of Dar Haleshla’s EP “Feenkoum?”
Inspired by the rhythms, melodies and instruments of the “Gnaoua” style of music, Sidi El Gnaoui features Mouna Eddrou’s haunting Sufi vocals, Bongo Billy’s blistering percussion licks and a driving house beat.
Dar Haleshla: Dounia
Dounia means “life” in Arabic and is the third single from the EP “Feenkoum”. It follows the same style of the previous two singles, house music beats and arrangements, percussion, dub reggae sound effects and Mouna Eddrou’s Sufi singing. Dounia differs in that the percussion uses Middle Eastern or “sherki” rhythms and drums and whole track is more sparse and ambient while keeping the hypnotic, trance-like qualities of the other tracks from the EP.
