Maghreb United

Sofyann Ben Youssef has moved on. Two years ago, he played a key role in the intriguing Bargou 08 album Targ (reviewed in Songlines #125), for which he worked as producer and used a Moog synthesizer to add bass rhythms to songs from north-west Tunisia. Now, using the name AMMAR 808, he sets out to rework traditional songs from right across the North African Maghreb region. He uses much the same technique as before, but has expanded the musical range by working with three traditional male singers. From Tunisia there's Cheb Hassen Tej; from Algeria there's Sofiane Saidi; and from Morocco there's Mehdi Nassouli, who also plays the gimbri (lute). They are joined by multi-instrumentalist Lassad Boughalmi playing two more ancient instruments, the gaspa flute and a reed instrument, the zokra. The almost exclusively traditional songs are transformed with the electronics and synth-work that provides the percussion and bass lines that dominate every track.

As with Bargou 08, the balance of ancient and modern works well. There is space for the traditional sounds of the region and some fine instrumental and vocal work alongside those rumbling bass lines and drone effects. And there's plenty of variety, from the gutsy ‘Ichki Lel Bey’ to the exuberant ‘Layli’.