Night Spirit Masters

Recorded live at night in the medina of Marrakech by Billy Youdelman using an Akai digital 12-track and produced by Bill Laswell and Richard Horowitz, Night Spirit Masters is a classic of Gnawa music, first released in 1990, and one of Songlines’ Essential 10 Gnawa albums (March 2015, #106). It’s reissued and remastered on 180g audiophile vinyl.

It’s richly atmospheric, the 11 tracks ranging from the thunderous drum rhythms of ‘Tramin’ to the classic gimbri and qaraqab combination on the likes of ‘Chabako’, featuring the voice of Abdelqader Oughassal, and one of the album’s longest pieces. Altogether, there are 25 Gnawi featured on these historic recordings, with powerful call-and-response vocals driving the tracks deep into the subconscious, alongside more intimate, hushed performances such as ‘Moulay Abdellah Ben Hassaine / Moulay Brahim’, featuring Ahmed Mamzaoi on shaker, and the gimbri and voice of the great maalem Mustapha Baqbou (who also features on ‘Jillala’), a pioneer of Gnawa fusion (with the likes of Santana and Marcus Miller) and a star of Essaouira’s Festival de Gnawa. It’s ideal late-night listening, varied and deeply immersive, and for lovers of African and North African music, and of trance, an essential part of any library.