Jajouka Between the Mountains

The Master Musicians Of Jajouka led by Bachir Attar

Released 24 June 2022

  1. My God My Love Has Come
  2. The Real Long Night In Jajouka
  3. Boujeloudia

Liner notes

This is a music from a very long time ago. From so far back in the recesses of the brain, so far gone into the mists and fog of history, that only the very old and those fortunate enough to still walk and earth where magic and mystery live and breathe can understand.

This is a music of one family who settled in the gold-green foothills of the Moroccan rif, way up on the Mount of the Owls a thousand years ago. The descendants of this first Attar, a sufi from Persia, still play the magical music that brings Pan from his lair deep in these ancient hills.

In a world where magic and mystery are fast disappearing, the playing of the Master Musicians of Jajouka still conjures the demons and saints of long ago.

This is a music that cannot be ignored. It may be that this could be the last generation that can experience this magic, for the music belongs to one family, to a special place in space and time that is one of the last free places on earth.

This is a music whose practitioners grow old— there is no guarantee that the young will take their place. But here, captured live in performance at Real World after their first European tour for more than a decade, is music which is a record of our past —an inspiration for our future— and whose time is now.

Credits

Bachir Attar: bandleader, guaita, timbro, lira, flute, vocals
Mostapha Attar: rebel, guaita
Taher Boukzar: violin, ghazita, vocals
Ali Nachat: guaita, tarija
Ali Maidoubi: flute, rebel, guaita
Mohamed El Attar: tarija, rebel, dancer
Mohamed El Attar: tghaita, flute, tabel, tarija
Mohamed El Attar: tebel
Mohamed El Attar: flute, rebel, guaita
Adesalam Boukhzar: tebel
Abdellah Boukhzar: tirbouga, tebel, vocal
Mohamed El Hatmi: bou jeloud, dancer

Executive producers: Eric Sanzen, Cherie Nutting, Steve Carnaby

This album was made during the 1995 Recording Week at Real World Studios.

Produced by: Tchad Blake
Engineered by: Russell Kearney
Photos: Cherrie Nutting
Image manipulation: Amy Robins
Graphic design: Real World

Special thanks to: The Kingdom of Morocco, Royal Air Moroc, The Moroccan Tourist Board: Mohamed Tazi, The Governor of Larache: Mr Meloudi Bousiff, Mr Abdel Had Baraka, William Burroughs, Robert Rosenblatt Esq., Thomas Brooman, John Du Prez, Jasper Wynn, Sandra Walker, Trevor Kesterton, Henry Astor, Alex Ryan, Mr Zouhair Mehagi, Jessica O’Keefe, Donovan & Linda Leitch, Lynn Burns, Buster Atkins, Hotel Continental, Adsalm Chatt, Artifo Chatt, Dr Mark Joy and everyone at WOMAD & Real World.

Further Listening

  • Trance

    Hassan Hakmoun

    Released 30 August 1993

    Primal Moroccan trance traditions collide with psychedelic New York rock and London dance grooves. What results is part of the on-going story of Gnawa music, which spread from West Africa, the Sudan, and the Southern Sahara through centuries of migration until it reached Morocco.
  • New Moon

    Abdelli

    Released 26 June 1995

    Abdelli is a Berber of the Kabyle people, indigenous North Africans who have inhabited the region since pre-Arab times. New Moon is the poetic and passionate music of a man who brings his ancient culture into the modern world through collaboration with musicians from South America and the Ukraine.

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