Photo by Javier Salas

Throughout the southern coast of Spain, one can easily listen to popular North African music by tuning numerous Moroccan and Algerian radio stations across the strait of Gibraltar. Tarifa is the southernmost town in Europe, from which you can see the African continent on any clear day and listen to the Moroccan muezzins at sundown calling for prayer.

Radio Tarifa is the brainchild of Faín Dueñas, a former electric guitarist who realized that playing Anglo-Saxon rock wasn't leading him anywhere. Instead, he sought new paths and learned about other kinds of music from foreign and southern Spanish musicians. Currently, he has become an specialist in African and Arabic percussion, as well as in string instruments from the lute family such as the Turkish cümbüs, the guimbri, sentir, udand Flamenco guitar.

The rest of the core group is formed by Flamenco cantaor Benjamín Escoriza, from Granadaand reed/flute player Vincent Molino, from France. The group’s albums feature numerous guests and the live band includes some of Spain’s finest world music players.

Juan Alberto Arteche produced the group’s first album, Rumba Argelina, for his eclectic Música Sín Fín label. Arteche later sold the rights to BMG Spain who in turn licensed it to World Circuit in Great Britain.

Rumba Argelina was an international success thanks to its lively pieces with a Medieval Spanish-North African-Flamenco feeling to it. The reeds heard on the album are not a Middle Eastern instrument, but a Renaissance crumhorn played by Vincent Molino. Flamenco cantaor Benjamín Escoriza, from Granada, provides the Andalusian flavor, while Faín Dueñas uses atypical instruments such as the Gnawan guimbri (a string instrument), the North African darbuka drum and the Turkish tar frame drum.

Official Web Site: www.radiotarifa.com

Rumba Argelina (Música Sín Fín, 1993)

Cruzando el Río (USA: Nonesuch/Europe: World Circuit, 2001)

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