Ud player and singer Dhafer Youssef from Tunisia brings the festival the music project Electric Sufi, after his homonymous CD. Youssef's music has its roots in the Sufi tradition and other mystic music, but he has always been open to jazz. His compositions contain Arab influences and his poetic approach to the Ud, an Arab lute, is very special. Since 1990, Dhafer Youssef has been working and residing in Vienna, where he has shared the stage with many musicians. 1999 saw the release of the CD Malak, to which Youssef received positive reactions. It led to an extensive European tour with his quartet, with among others Markus Stockhausen on trumpet. The singer, who connects East and West naturally, has also performed with trumpet player Nils Petter Molvaer and percussionist Marilyn Mazur in Scandinavia. At the invitation of the bass player/producer Bill Laswell, he performed at last year's World Festival of Sacred Music in Japan. In the East meets Jazz-program the emphasis is on jazz musicians from the Middle East who have incorporated their roots in their music. Though none of them still live in their native countries, their origin is an important element in their music and their playing. Often this is also these musicians' motive: the possibility of fusing two musical worlds and really also two lives.
