For more than two decades, Club d’Elf have been quietly bending time. What begins as a groove often opens into something older and stranger, where Moroccan trance, dub, jazz, electronica, and improvised funk spiral together into long-form journeys that feel both meditative and kinetic. Built around bassist and composer Mike Rivard and a rotating cast of musicians from Boston, New York, and beyond, Club d’Elf functions as a living organism. Each performance is shaped by who’s in the room, onstage and off, with trance as the gravitational center pulling everything into orbit.
This night celebrates the release of their new album, Loon and Thrush, recorded entirely live in the studio with minimal overdubs. The record captures the band in flight, raw, responsive, and deeply connected. While rooted in Rivard’s original compositions, it also honors the band’s long-standing influences, including Moroccan-inflected interpretations of Grateful Dead classics “Bird Song” and “New Speedway Boogie.” The album’s avian imagery reflects its core theme: movement, migration, and transcendence, music as a means of crossing thresholds.
The release also carries a deeper resonance. Longtime member and Casablanca native Brahim Fribgane, who helped weave Moroccan trance into the band’s DNA, passed away in early 2024. His spirit remains present throughout the music, especially through Rivard’s commanding sintir work, developed under Fribgane’s guidance and that of Gnawa masters Hassan Hakmoun and Mahmoud Guinia. Heard live at De La Luz Soundstage, this performance is both a celebration and a continuation, an invitation to lose track of time, follow the rhythm, and step into a shared space where memory, motion, and groove move as one.
