Ekova is no more

So I always liked the Cocteau Twins meets North Africa by way of Ben Watt style musical melange of Ekova, but had not heard anything since their 2000 release. On a lark (I get on many of those) I picked up a copy of Duoud's Wild Serenade on Label Bleu from France, and realized that one of the two oud players in Duoud is in fact ex-Ekova member Medhi Haddab. I then went digging around and apparently vocalist Dierdre Dubois (link goes to a splash page...come one folks, you all should know you need to at least have an EPK ready when your album is being released) is also releasing something on Six Degrees (the same label that functioned as Ekova's North American distributor) called One (that link at least takes you to a proper album page with some media clips; the song and video for Waiting for Spring is a treat).

I can say so far that both releases are rewarding for some of the same reasons; lush production, great cross-pollinated motifs, solid compositions. Where they differ is that Duoud is essentially an instrumental tour de force showing a mix of the traditional (dual acoustic Oud s) with more eclectic backdrops. Dubois on the other hand, does a bit of a bridge between her past work and that which is currently being mined by female singer/songwriters like Imogen Heap, Bjork, Esthero and in some spots even Sussan Deyhim. It is heavily electronic, but bears the markings of someone who is not going to be pigeon-holed and bounded by generally accepted boundaroies of that term.