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In the beginning, it was probably Brian Jones.
We are at the end of the 1960s when the influence of a certain psychedelia and the interest in sounds that were folkloric and had a particular spiritual component (though it was the same for blues music itself) became something generally widespread in the world of pop-rock music, especially in the United Kingdom.
As we know, the Rolling Stones were not insensitive to this allure (even if 'Their Satanic Majesties Request' remains probably their most debated work within the discography of the 1960s) and, in particular, Brian Jones was not immune to it. In this case, he embarked on the production of a musical project that, in my opinion, was fundamental during those years, namely 'Brian Jones Presents the Pipes of Pan at Joujouka'.
The album was the recording of a live performance by the Master Musicians of Joujouka held on July 29, 1968, at the village of Jajouka in Morocco, with Brian Jones himself participating, as well as Ornette Coleman.
The history of this album is too vast to be recounted here because this project practically involves a lot of influential personalities from the culture of those years. Suffice it to say that, among others, the executive producers mentioned include (besides Brian Jones himself) Philip Glass, Kurt Munkacsi, and Rory Johnston, and that other contributing artists included Bachir Attar, Paul Bowles, Stephen Davis, Brion Gysin, David Silver, and even William S. Burroughs.
The cultural legacy of such a work was and remains immense, constituting a reference point for a particular approach, both conceptual and philosophical, to psychedelia (besides musical) that has been a constant through the years up to today, when it has been revived as a central element within a certain neo-psychedelic subculture formed around the figure of Anton Newcombe and the Brian Jonestown Massacre, which has also seen the publication of episodes such as 'Dead Magick' by the Icelandic supergroup Dead Skeletons.
It is precisely to an offshoot of the Dead Skeletons, the TAU project of Shaun 'Nunutzi' Mulrooney, that I feel inclined to compare this brand new project composed of six members and led by Brussels percussionist Diego Moscoso, named Phoenician Drive.
The first EP was released on April 28 at Exag' Records, titled 'Two Coins', and contains two tracks: 'Two Coins For The Boatman' and 'Fat Bill'.
Conceptually, the project aims to modernize those sounds historically and typically folkloric of the Mediterranean basin: from North-East Africa (in this sense some might rightly think of the tishoumaren of Tinariwen and Tamikrest) to the Middle East. These sounds are clearly rendered with a considerable number of guests and the introduction of instrumentation like flutes, clarinets, and saxophones, looking at another significant piece of the history of 1960s-70s psychedelic music, namely kosmische musik and kraut-rock.
Thus, we have, on one hand, experiences like the already mentioned Brian Jones with the Master Musicians of Joujouka, perhaps those madmen of Hapshash and the Coloured Coat, and on the other, the kraut-rock of Can, NEU!, and even the more 'punk' one of La Dusseldorf! Finally, we have influences from the Middle East, particularly (referenced as a point of reference) from the guitarist representing so-called 'Anatolian Rock', Erkin Koray.
Unlike the Nunutzi project, which looks especially at Central America and a certain shamanism, Moscoso and his associates seem instead to seek the origins of a certain European culture by traveling back in time and following the cult of Tanit (a goddess in Phoenician worship corresponding to Juno), guided in the darkness by the fire of the sacrificial pyre in which Dido burned, daughter of Belus, king of Tyre, and founder and queen of Carthage.
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