Wild Bird, issued in 2012 on Awang Record & Live, presents Idriss El Mehdi’s exploration at the intersection of gnawa and afrobeat. Across ten tracks, El Mehdi weaves instrumental narratives that lean heavily on piano, underscoring his role as composer and pianist. The album’s palette is framed by the rhythmic insistence of afrobeat's grooves and gnawa’s hypnotic motifs, with pieces like “No Problem - Longue Verse” exemplifying this blend.Though modest in circulation—evidenced by a small but dedicated following on Last.fm—Wild Bird offers a collection of compositions that resist facile categorization. Tracks such as “Piano for Kayi” and “Goddamn the Pusher Man” suggest a jazz-inflected sensibility, while the French instrumental tag hints at El Mehdi’s cultural milieu. This artifact is a signal from a niche corner of the 2010s vinyl canon, where African diasporic forms meet European instrumental tradition.

Wild Bird, issued in 2012 on Awang Record & Live, presents Idriss El Mehdi’s exploration at the intersection of gnawa and afrobeat. Across ten tracks, El Mehdi weaves instrumental narratives that lean heavily on piano, underscoring his role as composer and pianist. The album’s palette is framed by the rhythmic insistence of afrobeat's grooves and gnawa’s hypnotic motifs, with pieces like “No Problem - Longue Verse” exemplifying this blend.Though modest in circulation—evidenced by a small but dedicated following on Last.fm—Wild Bird offers a collection of compositions that resist facile categorization. Tracks such as “Piano for Kayi” and “Goddamn the Pusher Man” suggest a jazz-inflected sensibility, while the French instrumental tag hints at El Mehdi’s cultural milieu. This artifact is a signal from a niche corner of the 2010s vinyl canon, where African diasporic forms meet European instrumental tradition.