Jola: Hidden Gnawa Music in Brussels

A label, venue, and performing arts foundation, Muziekpublique's latest release focuses on Brussels’ population of Gnawa musicians, which numbers some 40 players, 17 of whom have come together as Jola, which means ‘Tour’ in Moroccan Arabic and refers to travelling from town to town to meet other Gnawi on the initiatory road to tagnawit, or ‘the way of the Gnawa.’ Here, that sonic road opens with the hypnotic clatter of the massed qaraqab (metal castanets), the under-floor rumbling of the gimbri bass lines that guide and define each of the performances, and the muscular call-and-response vocals. The lead voice and chorale wind around each other as the cuts deepen from the opening music of sacrifice (dbina) through the drum procession (ada) to the celebration dances (fraga) and possession trances (mluk) that are the culmination of the lila night ritual that this record encapsulates in miniature form (a full lila may last for hours).

The performances are powerful and well recorded. Like Innov Gnawa from the US and London-based DJ U-Cef's excellent digital releases of smaller ensembles recorded in Marrakech, Jola deliver something of the primal spirit of Gnawa as a music and a culture.