Lemma

Hailing from the Saoura region of southern Algeria, Lemma are a group of 11 female artists whose name, in their Saharan dialect, describes a gathering or reunion of people threatened by scattering and dispersal. Led by Souad Asla on vocals and percussion (which, apart from a gimbri, are the only instruments used by the group), this album draws influence from their area's rich ethnic heritage: Arabic, Berber, Jewish and freed slaves from sub-Saharan Africa. Helpfully, the tracklisting is divided up into the five genres represented here. Al-farda has a definitively urban style, evident on the track ‘Maachouk’, with a poetic quality reminiscent of Arab-Andalusian music. Zaffani and malhun, with their simple call-and-response structures, are styles easy to imagine being played at family celebrations and religious ceremonies. Hiduss, on the other hand, has a harsher-sounding edge (heard on ‘Kheirli Ana’) and is more typical of Algeria's Berber-speaking regions and neighbouring Morocco. Gnawi is clearly the sub-Saharan catch-all with even a faint touch of Ghanaian highlife straining through on ‘Ali Ya Ali’. Finally, hadra provides a spiritual element, with roots in mystical Sufism. Not all of the tunes are overtly melodic but many are beguiling, at times enchanting and nearly all uplifting, featuring the sound of confident female voices.