U2 Recording a New Album in Morocco
Recently, Irish rock band U2’s front-man Bono was spotted taking in the sights and sounds of the medina in the culturally and historically rich city of Fez, Morocco. When the other U2 band members (The Edge, Adam Clayton, Larry Mullen) who many claim are amongst the world’s greatest musicians were also seen in the city, it was thought that they may have been there to see The Annual World Sacred Music Festival. It was later confirmed that they have set up a recording studio in Fez, Morocco and are in the process of recording a new album.
This is not the first time that U2 have visited Morocco to work. In October 1991, their surreal video “Mysterious Ways”, which was directed by Stephane Sednaoui, was also filmed in Fez.
Earlier this year, in response to a question during an interview with Rolling Stone, The Edge hinted that U2 may possibly join forces with producers Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno again. This legendary production duo have been a driving force behind a number of U2’s most memorable albums, such as , ‘The Joshua Tree’, ‘Achtung Baby’, ‘The Unforgettable Fire’ and ‘All That You Can’t Leave Behind’. It has now been confirmed that Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno are once again working with U2, but this time apparently solely in a song-writing capacity, which is producing some exciting and unusual results.
Sources say that the band has already produced a number of viable ideas in their writing and recording sessions, which have been going on from morning till night for a number of weeks, but nothing has been confirmed yet as to what will be going onto the new album. All agree though, that the influences of this ancient and exotic location of Fez, Morocco, will be evident in the music that results out of these sessions. Local musicians – fiddlers and percussionists – are being included in at least two of the songs, which have been described as having distinctly Arabic rhythms.
The members of U2 and all those collaborating with them on this album, agree that they are enjoying the unhurried fashion that ideas are being thrown around, worked on, put aside and picked up again and a lot of incredible music is coming out of these casual sessions.
All loyal U2 fans, and there are millions of them world-wide, have never yet been disappointed in anything the band has offered. There is no doubt that fans are waiting in keen anticipation to hear what comes out of these recording studios in Fez, Morocco.