Moktar Gania & Gnawa Soul – Gnawa Soul (MusjoMusic/Nuits d’Afrique, 2022)
“Gnawa Soul” brings together the spellbinding Moroccan rhythms of the Gnawa, West African influences and skillfully crafted modern elements. The album features master musician (known as maalem) and singer Moktar Gania, the younger brother of the late Maalem Mahmoud Gania. Moktar plays the Gnawa bass lute called guembri (also known as sintir), generating trance-like grooves. Chiefly, Maalem Moktar Gania is the heir of one of the great Gnawa families in Morocco, with more than 150 years of oral tradition.
Gnawa Soul was recorded at the Planet Essaouira recording studio, the first studio in Essawira (western Morocco) created by Pascal Amel (co-founder of the Gnawa Festival in 1994). At Planet Essaouira, Mahmoud Gania worked with composer and guitarist Anoir Ben Brahim (Ben Trio) and percussionist and arranger Yacine Ben Ali.
The recording process lasted nearly two years. Artistic director Jacques Sanjuan patiently guided the sessions, shaping the album’s sound. “The idea was to start from 15-minute pieces and make songs out of them, it was a real challenge“, Sanjuan said.
The core trio of Mahmoud Gania, Anoir Ben Brahim and Yacine Ben Ali created a fantastic modern world music album rooted in Gnawa traditions, where vocals and the trance-inducing rhythms of the guembri are elegantly intertwined with electric guitars and other instruments.
Additional musicians included saxophonist Géraldine Laurent, guitarist Jean-Marie Ecay, and singer Neta El Kayam. I didn’t particularly like the handful of saxophone parts as, in my opinion, it didn’t fit well with the rest of the instruments.
“Gnawa Soul” was mixed in the United States by Chris Shaw and mastered at the Métropolis studio in London by Tony Cousins. Moroccan artist Hassan Hajjaj shot the photo that appears in the cover art.
Author: Angel Romero
Angel Romero y Ruiz has dedicated his life to musical exploration. His efforts included the creation of two online portals, worldmusiccentral.org and musicasdelmundo.com. In addition, Angel is the co-founder of the Transglobal World Music Chart, a panel of world music DJs and writers that celebrates global sounds. Furthermore, he delved into the record business, producing world music studio albums and compilations. His works have appeared on Alula Records, Ellipsis Arts, Indígena Records and Music of the World.