The story of Sapho's new album began with Un très proche Orient, her book published by Les Editions Joëlle Losfeld/Mango, which featured over 100 contributions from an impressive range of writers including authors, poets, philosophers and psychoanalysts of all nationalities (Palestinians, Israelis, South Americans, Europeans, North Africans etc.) "I asked each of them to write a page about the conflict in the Middle East, taking a sensitive approach to the problems," Sapho explains, "I didn’t want any ideology or politics involved. It was meant to be a personal thing. Anyway, ‘Un très Proche-Orient' ended up being sent to the places mentioned in the book and I was asked to go out there to present it and sing." Sapho accepted the invitation on one condition, that she work with the Nazareth Orchestra. In fact, the Moroccan-born singer had already been out to the Middle East to work with the orchestra and the experience had had a lasting effect upon her - "I even wrote a poem about them in the plane coming home!" she laughs. The first time she worked with the Nazareth Orchestra Sapho had performed covers of songs by legendary Egyptian diva, Oum Kalsoum. But this time round Sapho insisted on presenting a totally new "creation" which would be all her own work. "The people in Nazareth and Baghdad turned round and said 'OK, why not?" she recalls, "But it felt like complete and utter madness! We started out doing a lot of work using electronic music as a base and then I got one of my friends, the Lebanese conductor Elie Askhar, involved, asking him to look after the orchestral arrangements. I think we managed to give the songs some pretty cutting-edge arrangements in the end. Anyway, I sent a CD of everything we'd done off to Baghdad and Nazareth, then I actually went out there myself. The musicians gave me a few funny looks to begin with. I mean, can you imagine me turning up there with my machines and things? I honestly think if they hadn’t worked with me before, they wouldn’t have agreed to the project at all! They seemed to have a bit of trouble getting into things to begin with, but they gradually ended up getting a feel for my songs. And that’s basically how the album was ‘born’."

When she went out to work with the Nazareth Orchestra Sapho discovered that one of its most extraordinary features is that it brings together Jewish, Muslim and Christian musicians, living and working in harmony. This is the achievement of the orchestra's director, Suheil Radwan, who, after his retirement, had set about putting together a group of multi-faith musicians to bridge religious divides. And Radwan has maintained the nature of his orchestra against all odds, insisting they keep their multi-faith feature no matter where they perform. Thanks to Sapho's unstinting energy and the help of numerous institutions, the orchestra's full line-up will be together to play at the Théâtre National de Chaillot in Paris (7 - 9 February).

As for the title of Sapho's new album, Orients, this was deliberately kept in the plural because in the singer's birthplace, Marrakesh, there are several types of Eastern music. And to mark the point the title on the album cover is written in Arabic, French and Hebrew. Orients opens with the fairytale phrase "once upon a time", sung in the four different languages used throughout the album: French, Arabic, Spanish and English.

"It’s true what’s really missing here is Hebrew," says Sapho, "And that was for the simple reason that I didn’t know how to speak it! But now I’ve learnt how to say the phrase in Hebrew so I can get up and do it on stage. I think including Hebrew is important because there are some people who see me as being against the state of Israel… But the truth is I'm a pacifist. I’m not in favour of plague and I’m not in favour of cholera! The truth is I don’t want to have to choose between terrorism and Ariel Sharon’s policies."Despite Sapho's reputation for being a committed 'protest' singer, her new album features only a couple of tracks directly related to current political events. In fact, as an album, Orients mostly revolves around love songs. "I didn’t want to feel I was getting up there and flying the flag for different causes," says Sapho, "There was a story behind the construction of this album and that was enough in itself. I didn’t have to start adding in any other justifications. People always imagine that I’m a committed singer. I’d say I’m obviously concerned by certain events in the world today because of my origins and my history. But it’s like music, you know. I remember one day I said to myself "OK, this time round I’m going to do a totally French album!" But you know what? I still couldn’t stop myself throwing in a pinch of cinnamon and cumin here and there! It wasn’t something I thought about doing consciously, it was almost unintentional in a way. But the thing is you never lose what’s stored in your memory and it’s natural for cultures to end up getting cross-fertilised. I love the French language and I write in French too. It is my mother tongue, after all… but somewhere down the line I just can't help throwing in the ‘spices’ of my roots every now and then!"

Sapho's new album appears to buck this trend - if before Sapho had trouble stopping herself spicing up French with a bit of Middle Eastern flavour, this time round she appears not to be able to stop herself from slipping Western electronica into the East! Highlights of the album include tracks where The Nazareth Orchestra bring their violins, ouds, darbukas and tambourines surging under electro beats and others where Western electro beats come crashing into traditional Middle Eastern music.
"I see this album as a kind of voyage," says Sapho, "or as a sort of balancing act between acoustic and electronic music. To be honest, I thought it would be a bit ridiculous to just use acoustic instruments, that the album would end up sounding pseudo Middle Eastern if I did. I wanted to come up with very modern-sounding arrangements which played up the totally majestic side of the orchestra. And I hope that’s what I’ve managed to do. But there are other tracks on the album, like Shéhérazade for instance, which sound a lot more obviously Eastern. I wrote this particular song for Baghdad and I felt it absolutely had to use a traditional Arab scale to play up the elements of this wonderful legend. I mean, can you imagine? This woman actually decides to intervene and stop murder by staying up all night and telling stories to a king who’s so jealous that he kills his virgin brides at dawn! But Shéhérazade decides to go in there anyway and, at the risk of her own life, attempt to stop the massacre!"
Thematically speaking, Orients is a woman's album, a series of songs for all those who have been betrayed in love, for all those who have undergone the torment of loving against the odds. Indeed, at moments Orients sounds a little like extracts from a personal diary, written at a time of stress and personal suffering. As for the songs, these follow smoothly on from one another, Offre-moi following on the heels of Dos Gardienas, which revolves around the same theme (the symbolic gift of a flower). The first song is recorded in French, the second in Spanish.
"The way I see it," says Sapho with a smile, "Offre-moi is like the white version and Dos Gardienasis the black, masculine version. But I think it’s true to say that there’s a bit of a narrative thread running through the whole album. All the songs on the album were written at the same time, and in one particular place in Marrakesh at a rather sad moment of my life. But that’s what songwriting’s all about, you know, getting things out on paper and turning them into songs rescues you. It can save your life, you know… But I have to say things are much better now, even my relationship with the other person involved!"