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Monday, April 03, 2006

Gacha Empega and El Hillal

There is a great CD that I've been listening to, but it's unavailable, I guess, because I've been looking for it online and can't find it anywhere. The CD records a 2000 collaboration between Gacha Empega (a group from Marseille) and El Hillal (from southern Algeria)--it sounds like Nass Marrakech pumped up with some dancehall and a dose of heavy raga, with some strong dhikr thrown in. There are also some exquisite solo male songs, I believe in Spanish, but sung in the Andalusian style. They sing one Gnawa song (Abdel Qadir) or at least parts of it.

I'll keep looking. The cover is white with a cartoon drawing of a guy sitting on a camel. The guy's wearing dark glasses and there are two palm trees in the background.

1 Comments:

At 10:23 AM, Blogger John Schaefer said...

Follow up:

1. The style is NOT "Andalusian," but rather a traditional Provencal genre.

2. The language is NOT Spanish but Provencal, a language closely related to Catalan that has been identified in France as a regional variety of French.

 

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