Patti Smith’s Dizzy Ecstasy Pilgrimage, Anchored by Her Own Voice

“Mummer Love” is not a pop album. It is a pilgrimage, a travelogue, and a séance all wrapped into one 51-minute suite. SOUNDWALK COLLECTIVE, Philip Glass, Mulatu Astatke, and the Sufi group of Sheikh Ibrahim have built a record around field recordings made in Harar, Ethiopia, where the Sufis practice their ancient rituals. Patti Smith’s voice is the thread that holds it together, weaving in and out of chants, drones, and distant conversations in ways that feel both intimate and cosmic.

The album aims for a state of dizzy ecstasy, and it mostly gets there. The Sufi aim is to dropkick their consciousness into a state of dizzy ecstasy in the name of reaching God’s warm, annihilating glow. That is the goal, and the music spends its full length chasing it.

Track By Track

“Aw Abadir” opens the record with a brief, ceremonial pulse, setting the tone before the main event. “La Maison de Rimbaud” stretches to ten minutes and is the heart of the record, layering Smith’s voice over a tapestry of Ethiopian chants and ambient textures. It is the track that earns its length.

“Eternity” and “Song of the Highest Tower” follow, both shorter and more atmospheric, though neither quite matches the ambition of what came before them. “Mummer Love” is the title track and the emotional peak, a slow-burning ballad that lets Smith’s vocal sit front and center over a hypnotic rhythm.

“Farewell,” “Bad Blood,” and “Sensation” close the record on a quieter, more contemplative note, though “Bad Blood” carries some of the strongest tension of the entire album. The final track, “Sensation,” is a brief, meditative coda that brings the record to a close without overstaying its welcome.

What Works And What Does Not

The strong points are easy to identify:

• “La Maison de Rimbaud” is the standout track, where the Sufi chants and Smith’s voice find their perfect balance.
• “Mummer Love” is the emotional centerpiece, and it lands.
• “Bad Blood” is the darkest, most urgent moment on the record.

The weaker moments are more scattered. “Eternity” and “Song of the Highest Tower” are pleasant but forgettable, and the closing trio of tracks does not offer much new ground. The record’s structure is uneven, with its best ideas packed into the middle and its later moments feeling like a wind-down.

The Numbers

• Artist: SOUNDWALK COLLECTIVE & Patti Smith & Philip Glass & Mulatu Astatke & the Sufi group of Sheikh Ibrahim
• Year: 2019
• Tracks: 8
• Total running time: 51 minutes

Final Word

“Mummer Love” is a record that rewards patience and punishes skimming. Its best moments are genuinely transcendent, and its weakest are merely pleasant background noise. It is an ambitious project that mostly delivers on its promises, even when it stumbles.

album review · Ethiopia · Patti Smith · Philip Glass · Sufi