Club d'Elf ft. Eli Winderman

Club d'Elf - Loon and Thrush Album Release ft. Eli Winderman (Dopapod) & More!

To the naked eye, Club d’Elf appears to be a world-class instrumental ensemble: a rotating cast of fierce improvisers navigating deep grooves, trance-drenched vamps and sprawling textures. But to its dedicated following and the large constellation of musicians who cycle through its orbit, the band is something more like a musical organism — a ritualistic, ever-evolving experiment in trance, collective improvisation and timelessness. Their new album, Loon and Thrush (due out 4/10/26), captures this identity in its purest form yet, recorded entirely live in the studio and driven by the ecstatic, Moroccan-influenced approach that has become the band’s signature. No two shows are alike. Songs mutate, lineups shift, the ground moves beneath the listener, and a shared language emerges in real time.

The band began in 1998 with a residency at Cambridge’s Lizard Lounge, sparked by bassist/composer Mike Rivard’s desire to create a project that wasn’t driven by a frontman or fixed lineup, but by collective spontaneity and the pursuit of ecstatic musical states. Encouraged by the late Mark Sandman of Morphine, Rivard assembled a rotating family of musicians — from the jazz, electronic, world, DJ and avant-garde scenes — who could fuse groove and improvisation into a kind of cinematic sound world. Over the decades, Club d’Elf has toured internationally, developed a fervent cult following and recorded albums that weave dub, electronica, jazz, Gnawa, hip hop, prog and ritual trance into a singular sound.
THE MOROCCAN CONNECTION: THE HEART OF THE BAND

A major turning point came when Casablanca-born Brahim Fribgane joined the collective in 1999. Through his oud playing, vocals, percussion and deep knowledge of Moroccan trance traditions, Fribgane introduced Rivard to Gnawa — a centuries-old spiritual music rooted in repetition, ritual and ecstatic groove. Under Fribgane’s guidance, Rivard began studying the sintir and later worked with Gnawa masters Hassan Hakmoun and Mahmoud Guinia, absorbing the rhythmic cycles and phrasing of the tradition. Over time, Moroccan trance became not just an influence but the foundational pillar of the Club d’Elf aesthetic.