Tiddukla

The banjo has been a popular instrument in Moroccan music since the early 1970s, when it was first introduced by groups, such as Nass El Ghiwane, involved in the modern folk movement – and it’s been especially prized by musicians of the Tachelhit-speaking Amazigh (Berber) tribes from the Anti-Atlas mountains in the south of the country. Growing up in that region, Hassan Wargui had to make do with homemade instruments until he finally laid his hands on a banjo of his own after moving to Casablanca in his teens, around the turn of the millennium.

Recorded in 2015 with a group of friends, Tiddukla (Friendship) is just one of the projects he’s been involved in since: a direct descendant of pioneering 70s groups like Izenzaren who sang in Tachelhit at a time when Amazigh language and culture were being strenuously suppressed. Wargui’s clipped banjo patterns interlock with clopping hand percussion, forging intricate polyrhythmic puzzles, while the bass-like gimbri and iron qaraqab castanets hint at the rituals of Moroccan Gnawa. On the title-track, a touch of AutoTune on his sonorous vocals suggests a 21st-century update on tradition, like a skyline bristling with minarets and satellite dishes.