Originally released as a double CD in 2010, Wallahi Le Zein! has persisted as a cult classic, a collection of a rarely heard and utterly unique underground music scene, raw and unfiltered.
The LP, cassette & digital version we now present is intended as an immersive entry into this music: gnarled and virtuosic electric guitars weave hypnotically throughout melismatic sung poetry and exclamations, pulsing hand drums, party chatter, buzzing rigged desert sound systems, and all manner of the ambient sounds of Nouakchott wedded to oversaturated cassette in all its swirling, breathing, psychedelic glory. Operating entirely outside of any local recording industry, these songs were collected from bootleg tape stalls, wedding souveniers, and networks of musicians, expertly curated, researched and produced by Matthew Lavoie.
Drawing from the deep well of Mauritanian classical music, the gamut of musical modes and the tidinitt lute repertoire are transposed to the electric guitar - often with frets removed or additional frets installed, “heavy metal” distortion pedals and phasers built into guitar bodies, blurring the lines between Haratine and Beydane musical cultures, the ancient and the futuristic. At times transcendent and transfixing, and conversely a furious and cascading intensity that commands jaw-dropping attention.
released June 18, 2021
CREDITS:
Compiled by Matthew Lavoie
Originally released by Latitude Disc / Locust Music in 2010
LP, cassette & digital versions released by Mississippi Records in 2021
Produced by Matthew Lavoie, Cyrus Moussavi and Gordon Ashworth
Remastered by Timothy Stollenwerk at Stereophonic Sound
Design by Gordon Ashworth
LP Cover Production by Dan Fried
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
First and foremost, I would like to thank all of the vennane who gave so much of their time and were so generous in sharing their art and talent.
Thanks to Abdellahi Diop for his help with translations, and for always being ready to run the voodoo down, and a special thanks to Seydou ould Nalla, Fatim Diop, and the gang in Arafate, for their hospitality and good company.
RECOMMENDED LISTENING:
Dimi mint Abba. 1992. Music & Songs of Mauritania. Auvidis Ethnic B 6768.
Ely ould Meiddah/ Moktar ould Meiddah. 2002. Musique Maure. Prophet 29.
Ensemble El-Moukhadrami. 2000. Songs of the Griots. Institut du Monde Arabe 321004.
Khalife ould Eide & Dimi mint Abba. 1990. Moorish Music from Mauritania. World Circuit 019.
Noura mint Seymali, 2016. Arbina. Glitterbeat.
Ooleya mint Amartichitt. 1998. Praise Songs. Long Distance.
Various Artists. 1999. Concert sous la tente. Prophet 05.
Various Artists. 1998. Les Medeh des Haratines de Mauritanie. Club du Disque Arabe 163.
FURTHER READING:
thewealthofthewise.blogspot.com