Destiny

Born in Algeria during the independence war, Abderrahmane Abdelli first came to wider attention with his 1995 Real World album New Moon, but we've heard little from him since its follow-up, Among Brothers, nine years ago. Destiny – a beautiful set of bittersweet songs based on the themes of exile and loss – is the album he's been working on ever since. While Algerian contemporaries such as Khaled pursued the irresistibly brash and hedonistic pop fusions of rai, Abdelli's music has taken him in a different direction, exploring the Berber/Kabyle tradition and fusing it with modern influences from around the world. Destiny began its long journey towards the light with recordings made by Abdelli in Lahore in 2004 with his Moroccan violin player Abdelmajid Makrai Lamarti and various Pakistani musicians. It continued over the years with further recordings in Montréal and Brussels.

Of the 20 musicians on the album, drawn from ten different nationalities, Abdelli is the only Algerian; but the profundity of his pride in Berber tradition is buttressed rather than diluted by the openness of his collaborators. There's a strong Irish melancholy to ‘I'Targuit’ (In a Dream) which recalls the Berber/Celtic fusions of Idir on his album Identités. The atmospheric ‘Tachamat’ (The Candle) is a fine example of the recordings he made in Lahore, with some wondrous bansai flute playing by Ustad Baraka Abbas and a semi-spoken vocal about the pain of a mother left alone after her son has fled into exile. A group of South Americans lend a Latin lilt to ‘Ayouliw’ (My Heart). And yet Abdelli's Berber identity shines undimmed throughout, his throaty but melodic baritone exuding a warm dignity. A magnificent, mature and rewarding record that fully justifies its long gestation.