Those who are familiar with Mehdi Haddab's eclectic track record to date will not bat an eyelid at the mention of his new project, Speed Caravan - although fans of the oud (the pear-shaped, stringed instrument used in Middle Eastern music and considered by many to be the predecessor of the western lute) may be a little more bemused. Mehdi Haddab, a musician renowned on the French music scene for his pioneering work with a number of fusion projects, has now ventured out in a new direction, forming a "contemporary musical caravan" with bassist Pascal Teillet and electro musician Hermione Frank. The three create a magic triangle of sound, infused with rock energy and electro trance, and Mehdi's virtuoso acrobatics on the electric oud take the instrument way beyond its classical image.

Speed Caravan started out as a pact between two innovative nightbird musicians, Mehdi Haddab and Pascal Teillet (better known to family and friends as Pasco) who decided to hook up together and work on their own original compositions as well as an interesting selection of cover versions ranging from Udi Hrant to the Chemical Brothers and The Cure. The pair both come from very different musical backgrounds, although they are united by a passion for striking off in unexpected directions without a musical compass. 

After mastering the classical oud, Algerian-born Mehdi had formed the pioneering fusion trio Ekova and also teamed up with another oud-player, Smadj, to work as DuOud (an oud double act which melded the sound of the oud with happening electro beats). Mehdi had also made a name for himself accompanying everyone from Rodolphe Burger and Erik Marchand to the Algerian-born fusion star Rachid Taha. Meanwhile, bass virtuoso Pasco had forged his reputation working with the likes of King Mensah, Ganoub and jazz star Archie Shepp. Hermione Frank, the third member of Speed Caravan, is a journalist, electro musician and "old partner in crime" from Mehdi's Ekova days.

Speed Caravan, according to Mehdi, is a fusion of different musical universes and the result of a drunken, late-night meeting of minds. "We originally formed the trio so that we could build a repertoire together," he says, "We happened to get together three years ago at a time when I'd started systematically playing the electric lute… By that point, Pasco and I had started seeing each other several nights a week. Sometimes we'd get so into what we were doing that we'd end up working all night. We'd be up partying and playing music together until nine in the morning… That's how we came to construct something solid together in the midst of this mad whirl of creation. And that's how we came to be called Speed Caravan. It was like someone had suddenly put their foot on the accelerator and set us racing along!"

Before going into the studio together to record their debut album, Speed Caravan put in a solid couple of years on the live circuit, honing their sound in front of an audience. Like a contemporary Tuareg caravan speeding rather than wending their way across the desert, the trio soaked up different musical inspiration along the way, although their predominant influence is undoubtedly rock. "I wanted our album to feel really contemporary," says Mehdi, "but at the same time to refer back to what has gone before. I'm a huge fan of early 20^th-century oud music, pre-1950 stuff. I really love that style of playing so there are plenty of pieces on the album that hark back to that.  As for the title track on the album, 'Kalashnik Love', it's an old 78 rpm by a lute-player I absolutely adore: Udi Hrant Kenkulian. But, quite frankly, the original version is a million miles from the track on our album… Believe me, it was much harder to adapt old tracks like that and infuse them with rock energy than it was to cover something like The Cure's 'Killing an Arab.' 'Killing an Arab' is basically very garage, very minimalist. All we had to do was bring it up to date a bit."

Mehdi, who started out playing the electric guitar in Algeria as a form of "rebellion", admits that the album Kalashnik Love "is also a way of letting my hair down a bit, musically speaking. I got into music in the first place via electric guitar and rock. But then when I started learning to play the lute at the age of 17, that took me off in a completely different direction, getting me into something much calmer and serene. My rock demon came back again when I was 25, but I didn't have the means of expressing it. All I had was my lute which, even when I stuffed it full of rags and other material, didn't produce the sound I wanted. Then I came up with the idea of electrifying the lute and that really let the lion out of the cage. I suddenly found myself tapping into this sound full of rage and fury."  

The trio's overriding aim? To put their own original spin on the traditional "Sex & drugs & rock’n’roll" formula. "That's a sacred combination in my eyes," Mehdi proclaims, "And it's not just the definition of rock, but the definition of art since the dawn of time. Creation is about long, wild nights of drunkenness and love in all its forms… I hope the album 'Kalashnik Love' comes across as thoroughly radical and extreme. This is a huge step for me in terms of freeing the oud from its traditional restraints and breaking into new musical territory. I was involved with a lot of different projects before this which helped me understand the oud better. But this is really taking things up onto the next level - going into rock, in both the musical sense of the term, and the physical one, as in hewing into the rockface!"