This double album explores the many sounds of the Amazigh people from southern Morocco, giving traditional rhythms an electronic makeover, in hopes of preserving an endangered culture. Tekchbila Vol.1 is out on November 20th.
Spread across North Africa and through the numerous diasporas worldwide, the millennial Amazigh people and cultures have slowly blended with other populations and influences. From wars to weddings and religious ceremonies, the multiple tribes forming the Amazigh peoples used music in a vital and practical way. Adding layers and beauty to their ceremonial tempos, the Amazigh people used both instruments and everyday utensils to create these rhythms. Today, these practices are sadly disappearing, but many still cherish their ancestral roots and sacred traditions. In the south of Morocco, in the tranquil region of Souss-Massa, the Moroccan Association for Electronic Music (AMME) is giving yet another dimension to the ancient melodies. Enlisting electro producers to remix traditional bands’ live recordings, Tekchbila aims to keep these almost forgotten sounds alive.
The first part of Tekchbila Vol.1 offers a precious landscape of the Amazigh genres in 6 tracks. Coming from the rural province of Chtouka Ait-Baha, the Noujoum Chtouka Association musicians offer a dynamic Ayihad piece. The enchanting flute, coupled with high percussions and stomping drums, is a call to battle. Channeling African rhythms and Maraboutic culture, the Ait Bakari band delivers a mystical Isemgan – a reappropriated term designating for black slave performances. The women of Lalla Rkia Ali Ou Hmad converse in an Ahwach n’Timgharin chant made for dance and energy and punctuated by stimulating bendirs (hand drums).
But recording the Amazigh music wasn’t enough to ensure its survival and recognition. It needed something more. So Tekchbila originators Mohamed Biyjeddiguene and Fayçal Lahrouchi looked at Gqom, Kuduro, and Kwaito, and found their common denominator: electronic music. “By enthralling audiences from across the globe, these entrancing sounds radiate the true potential of the cultures that nurtured them, crushing and breaking misrepresentations and judgment on an unparalleled scale.” To help them, 11 young and promising Moroccan acts reimagined Amazigh music. Sampling the recordings, they reinterpreted the genres, experimenting with psychedelic tracks, like in Maniaque Nocturne’s “Raghoul” or grooving to club-ready tunes like Gj Leith’s bouncy “Who Diss”. Once assembled, the two sides of the Tekchbila Vol. 1 compilation are a great outlook on the Amazigh’s past and future, and the very first instalment of this Amazigh music revival project.
Tekchbila Vol.1 out November 20th via L’AMME
