“He was really kind of the spiritual core of the band,” said Rivard in a recent phone conversation. “It’s really hard to downplay the level of his influence on the music. It’s been huge. It really precipitated a personal crisis for me, because not only was he one of my closest musical collaborators, he was also one of my best friends.”

“I wasn’t sure what direction to take,” said Rivard. “And he actually came to me in a dream and relayed this message that the music was in us and that it was time for us to take what he had shown us and taught us and take it to the next level.”

“It’s so part of our musical DNA,” added Rivard about Fribgane’s influence, “that even though he’s not physically present on the album, I feel his spirit all over it.”

The album is Club d’Elf’s fourth studio recording, “Loon & Thrush,” scheduled for release on Friday via the Royal Potato Family label. The band — core members include Rivard on bass and sintir, Dean Johnston (Neighbor) on drums and Mister Rourke on turntables, with Paul Schultheis on keyboards — will celebrate the release with a Thursday show at Afterthoughts in Waitsfield, where they’ll be joined by Burlington guitarist Rob Compa.

Taking ‘flight’

Recording the album live in the studio with a multitude of top musicians that Rivard has been surrounded by in the ever-shifting collective — more than 150 total with some 40 or so regulars — a theme of “flight” began to emerge, according to Rivard.

This is most apparent on the first two singles, the title track and a spellbinding rendering of “Bird Song” by The Grateful Dead. The former — written by Rivard at a cabin in the Acadia region of Maine, where he’s written much of the Club d’Elf material over the years — rides a funky acid jazz vibe and buoyant horns to great effect.

The latter gets a distinctly Moroccan treatment, shining on the rich interplay of Duke Levine’s (Bonnie Raitt) electric sitar, Kevin Barry’s lap steel and Matt Kilmer’s percussion, and the hypnotic North African chaabi groove that the Casablanca-born Fribgane introduced to the band when he joined one year after Rivard formed Club d’Elf in 1998.

“New Speedway Boogie,” another Grateful Dead tune, is also filtered through a Moroccan lens with Rivard on sintir — a three-stringed bass lute — adding trippy North African trance to the bluesy shuffle.

Also classic is “Atlas Mountain Hop,” the most Moroccan-forward song on the album, which alternates between a lush, dreamlike vibe and heavy North African-influenced prog rock. And the epic “Level Up Your Soul” — with New Hampshire-based singer Hayley Jane adding potent vocals — is a major highlight that closes out the proceedings in style.

‘Our finishing school’

Easily one of Club d’Elf’s most accessible yet jam-forward sets to date, “Loon & Thrush” finds the compelling collective firing on all cylinders and sounding more assured and inspired than ever, taking its sound up a notch while reaffirming its distinctive vision.

Rivard called the record “a tribute on many levels: to Brahim and the legacy he left us with; to the (Maine) cabin and the inspiration I drew from my time there, where so much of what has become Club d’Elf has its roots; and to more of the musical sources from which we draw, in this case the Grateful Dead and the trance music of Morocco.”

“I guess this album is kind of like our finishing school,” said Rivard. “It was such a gift to have Brahim with us on the planet for as long as we did and to have him involved in the music as much as he was.”

“I love all the albums that we did that he’s so much a part of, but this is kind of like us having to figure it out without him,” he added. “And you know, taking his teachings and moving it on to the next level.”

As good as the album is, though, Club d’Elf is best experienced live, where different and usually regional musicians are added to the core lineup.

“I want to create an environment that is all-inclusive and lets the other musicians — especially the special guests — feel like the band is their backup, like we’ll follow them anywhere,” said Rivard.

“What I enjoy the most is just stepping back and letting other people drive the music and seeing what shapes it takes night to night.”

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