Peter Gabriel

As the frontman of Genesis, he had been able to shape a distinctive form of theatrical, progressive art-rock; as a solo artist, Peter Gabriel proved no less inventive, pursuing an ambitious exploration of the fusion between electronics and world music that led him to make innovative, experimental records destined to influence two decades of music. Within this project, "Passion" stands as the absolute pinnacle. It's an astonishing record for its cultural syncretism and for the sheer wealth of sonic solutions it contains. A monumental work in which Gabriel takes on the role of a Brian Eno of world music, a scholar of sound, drawing on a vast array of folk material, mostly from Asia and Africa, and reworking it in the studio.

Made in 1989 as the soundtrack for Martin Scorsese's "The Last Temptation of Christ" (an adaptation of the novel by Nikos Kazantzakis), "Passion" brought together musicians from countries such as Pakistan, Turkey, India, Ivory Coast, Egypt, Bahrain, New Guinea, Morocco, Senegal and Ghana. The resulting range of timbres and instruments is accordingly vast. Standouts include Shankar's violin, Kudsi Erguner's Turkish flute, Hossam Ramzy's tabla, Fatala's percussion, the Armenian duduk of Vatche Housepian and Antranik Askarian, and the vocals of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Youssou N'Dour and Baaba Maal.

The result of so much heterogeneity is a Babel of sounds and (poly)rhythms, with Gabriel as its architect. Many of the tracks are simply reworkings of Armenian, Egyptian and Kurdish themes with centuries of history behind them. But there's nothing remotely déjà vu about "Passion" — quite the opposite: it feels like witnessing a gigantic futurist musical. The electronic pulses and "ambient" textures manage to transform these ancient melodies into the ideal soundtrack for a journey through the world music yet to come. In this sense, the album can easily be counted among the most influential in rock history. Yes, rock — because even as it moves through folk traditions from half the globe, "Passion" reveals a "synthetic" attitude that is typically rock. Just as typically rock is the approach — always instinctive, never abstract — with which Gabriel shapes this mass of sound.

The album is built as a crescendo, an ideal ascent from the wildest pagan tribalism up to Arab and Eastern mysticism, finally arriving at the solemnity of the Christian Passion. In the film, Martin Scorsese wanted to show the struggle between the human and divine sides of Christ in a harsh, provocative way. The tracks on "Passion" tell this conflict through a spectacular alternation of mystic meditations and martial symphonies, raga tribalism and torrential jungle dances, Arab litanies and mournful Morricone-like melodies.

The album opens, and right away... "The Feeling Begins", as the opening track reveals. Credit goes to its mysterious opening synth drones, followed by a gradual accumulation of instruments: octobans, surdo, skins (all courtesy of Manny Elias), but also tabla and cymbals, guitar and double violin (played, of course, by the extraordinary Shankar); the doudouk, meanwhile, is entrusted with interpreting a traditional Armenian melody (renamed in English "The Wind Subsides"). More than the start of an album, it feels like a caravan of dervishes setting off on a journey into the desert.

The garden of "Gethsemane" is the place of prayer: a brief chamber-music interlude lasting one minute and 25 seconds, taking the first steps of a long mystical ascent; Gabriel's virtuosity here lies in building an entire piece out of electronically manipulated flute samples. And while the spectral Arabic lament of "Of These, Hope" vibrates above all with Massambla Dlop's "talking drum", simulating a ride through the desert, the piece "Lazarus Raised" celebrates the miracle of resurrection over the celestial notes of a traditional Kurdish melody for duduk and tembûr (dedicated to a young woman's unhappy love for the legendary warrior Bave Seyro). For the occasion, Gabriel tries his hand at the evocative Akai piano. Listening to these tracks, it's almost as if you can see Pink Floyd playing in a mosque. And new age is just around the corner.

The mood of mystical ecstasy is soon interrupted by the sonic storm of "A Different Drum" — perhaps the most quintessentially "Gabriel-esque" of the tracks — with the former Genesis leader's majestic baritone intoning a kind of jungle chant, surrounded by organ drones, dense tribal percussion and exotic vocalizations (courtesy of David Sancious). It's a classic example of Gabriel's ethno-dance: an exhilarating contamination between the modern technological pulse of the West and the "primitive" rhythms of deep Africa. It is instead in a refined minimalism, worthy of a world-music Glass, that the charm of "Zaar" should be sought — a tender piece resting on a pianistic backdrop, woven through with tambourine, duff, tabla, cymbals and triangle, and subtly threaded with the restless strings of Shankar's violin. The "tribal" techno-funk of "Troubled" leads into the mantra-like hymn of "Open", an improvisation between Shankar's violin and Gabriel's piano with a vaguely psychedelic aroma, helped along by Shankar's own "disorienting" vocalizations. By now we're deep in the territory of mystical trance, as confirmed by the following "Before Night Falls", dominated by the ney (the Turkish "oblique" flute) of Kudsi Erguner.

"With This Love" marks one of the album's most moving moments: an aching oboe melody, worthy of Morricone at his best, magically comes to life, while the embroidery of Shankar's double violin intertwines with the piano and the Fairlight, Gabriel's synth-computer that lends the arrangements a delicately electronic timbre. We're not too far removed from the most evocative pieces of Baroque music. Through a sandstorm obsessively marked out by Moroccan percussion and tabla ("Sandstorm"), we arrive at another station on the via crucis of "Passion": "Stigmata", where it's Mahmoud Tabrizi-Zadeh's kemenche and Gabriel's voice alone that create a "cosmic" suspense.

The album now ascends towards its mystical peak: the title track, which celebrates the Passion of Christ with the solemnity of a requiem and the mysticism of an Indian mantra. Gabriel's muezzin-like chant joins Nusrat Fateh's solemn soprano and the unmistakable vocalizations of Senegal's Youssou N'Dour, while Hassell's menacing trumpet, the tight cadence of Brazilian percussion and the dark interweaving of keyboards all help sharpen the sense of universal liturgy. The spectral choir of the "With This Love" reprise can then seem like the voice of the women mourning the dead Christ, awaiting the resurrection.

Kudsi Erguner's ney flute and Gabriel's synthesizers keep the fragile sonic sketch of "Wall Of Breath" alive, verging on the most rarefied ambient music, before the jolt of "The Promise Of Shadows". The hint of rhythm in the latter becomes a percussion solo in the obsessive "Disturbed", where African drums and tabla duel it out, pushing Shankar's violin into the background.

But the time for mourning is over, the resurrection is coming, and it's celebrated with the utmost solemnity by the symphony of "It Is Accomplished", with almost Wagnerian cadences and a triumph of instruments (from percussion to tambourine, from arghul to Hammond organ, from bass to keyboards). The work fades slowly away on the languid whistle of "Bread And Wine", the listener barely able to notice that Peter Gabriel's musical miracle has just come to an end.

"Passion", which marks Gabriel's debut on his own Real World label, will astonish critics the world over, win a Grammy for "Best New Age Album" of the year, and even manage to chart in the US and Britain. Momix, the dancer-illusionist company directed by American Moses Pendleton, will turn it into the soundtrack for a striking theatrical show. From this work will spring the rebirth of world music under Peter Gabriel's banner, which over the years will go hand in hand with producing a multitude of records for Third World musicians and a series of international projects, such as WOMAD (World Of Music, Arts And Dance), created to give Western visibility to the traditions of the world's lesser-known places, and turned into an annual touring event.

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29/10/2006