Farida Amadou

Farida Amadou is a self-taught bassist based in Brussels, Belgium. The electric bass has been her main instrument since 2011. In 2013, she started playing a lot of different musical genres, including blues, jazz and hip-hop. Soon Farida started diving into improvised and experimental music, and was quickly identified by local collectives and musicians. After a year (2018) as bassist in Belgian punk band Cocaine Piss, the musician decided to focus on her solo improvisation practice and collaborations with musicians such as, Thurston Moore, Peter Brötzmann, Julien Desprez, Jerusalem in My Heart, Moor Mother, ...: the ‘focus’ of her work from 2021 to today. Farida will be presenting her new solo album ‘When it Rains it pours’, released in September 2024 on the German label Week-End Records.

‘A self-taught musician, Amadou approaches the bass with an endearing level of humility. A veteran at this stage, having played in Liège noise-punk band Cocaine Piss, improv collective OKGB and worked alongside greats such as British percussionist Steve Noble, Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore and free jazz legend Peter Brötzmann, she manages to avoid the usual aesthetic traps. Not trying to slip into the expected improvisational mode or master the kind of fast fretwork you'd expect to hear on most solo bass records, Amadou focuses instead on the latent power of the instrument: its timing, rhythm and low, lush tone. On the opening track ‘Listen To’, she makes us wait a few minutes until a familiar beat cuts through rhythmic static pops and harsh sounds, and when the bass tones emerge, they are surprisingly orderly, almost mechanical, as they slip into a slightly phased pattern alongside the noisy flurries. Amadou eases us into his world, bringing the distinct emphasis of the instrument into focus, then using precise processes to highlight and disrupt our expectations.’ Bookmat review