The Strasbourg duo Haqibatt is the result of the meeting between percussionist Selma Doyen and bassist Christophe Piquet. Both passionate about rhythms and groove, they also find themselves in their pronounced taste for world music, funk and electro-jazz. The musicians thus offer a musical journey with multiple convolutions: sometimes hovering atmospheres with melodies that stay in the head, rhythms from here and elsewhere, with strange sounds that hypnotize the listener. In the complicity of a live creation, the duo superimposes instrumental loops to create a musical kaleidoscope where electro becomes poetic.
By Kamil Bobin
Discovered via Musosoup
Kamil) Hey Haqibatt, super nice to have the chance to chat with you. What first got you into music?
Hey Kamil, nice to meet you ! Well – it s quite not easy to answer to this question. Selma began with music as a child and grew up with it, it’s like a genetic part of her. I discover music later, as I was 10 or 11 – but it became soon a part of my identity. At the End is music for booth of us an essential element of our life.
How do you balance your time in the studio with other commitments such as a part-time job, family, admin?
Selma is a student in art history and cultural management, while I am a teacher. We have chosen not to be only in a musical universe, in order to keep a certain opening on other socio-professional circles. However, we have at heart to develop a professional musical project at all levels.
Your latest release is 'L'Electronique des Songes'. Can you tell us more about the making of it and if there were any unusual things happening during the process?
The recording of our album "L'électronique des Songes" took place during the summer - the titles which appear there, were composed in spring.... so even if the whole is the result of a work of 3/4 years in term of maturation, the realization of the album was finally rather fast. It was a very intense and productive period and the relations with the various actors around the project (sound engineer, graphic designer, photographer, etc.) were very enriching and motivating for us.
Where did you get the inspiration for this album?
It's never really easy to explain where the inspiration comes from, whether it's for a track or an album... we had some broad outlines though, coming from a reflection on our journey and our experiences over the last 3 years. We wanted something more electro, while leaving the place to more solo... we also tried to have a coherent whole, a kind of mirror of our electro-groove universe tinged with jazz... in general, for the composition, there is an idea at the beginning and we make it turn, we play it in all the directions so that it develops...
How long did you work on the 'L'Electronique des Songes'? Was it an easy process for you?
As I said before, this album is both a long term work, since it is the result of 3 years of experience, concerts... and the fruit of a shorter work - but much more intense, of a few months between the compositions of the pieces (spring) and their recording in the summer...
Is there a hidden meaning in any of your music?
There is not necessarily a hidden meaning in our titles, although some may have perceived it. For example, we were told that Cyclostorm - and its video - was perhaps a song denouncing the climate change... it's not what we wanted to put in it, but why not... It is an interesting reading of this title, it undoubtedly testifies to the fact that our pieces bring reflection and escape. The titles we give to our songs may be leads to follow - but we don't see them as "keys" to the song. Everyone hears what they want to hear...
What interests or hobbies do you have outside of music?
Besides music, we both have different interests: reading and literature, drawing, cinema, exhibitions and museums... but also sports, especially swimming and walking... in short everything that in one way or another nourishes us.
How do you find yourself in the music business? When you started out in music, did you know it would be like this?
Music is for us a means of expression in the same way as words, sentences... it probably works differently - but these are emotions that we convey thanks to our instruments: sometimes we are in dreams and melodic reveries, sometimes in dance, sometimes just in rhythm and percussive sounds.
How do you nurture your own creativity?
In fact, a lot of things feed our creativity - of course, we listen to a lot of music, totally different genres, and that certainly plays a role in our creativity, but eventually everything becomes a source of inspiration, a landscape, an exhibition, a picture...
What are your plans for the future?
If we look to the future... I think we will continue to do what we do, develop our project, play and share our music on stage, to make it live!