Oum & Noura Mint Seymali

Oum’s music is a mirror to her home country of Morocco, whose traditions she blends with international influences from soul, jazz and electronica. Oum studied Architecture in Rabat before devoting herself entirely to music. Her lyrics are in Darija, the local Moroccan version of Arabic, and she works powerful gnawa rhythms into her songs. In Hamburg, she will be presenting her new album »Dakchi«, which features brand-new songs as well as new interpretations of old ones. The album is a homage to collective cohesion, a theme that couldn’t be more topical, and was recorded with a number of the singer’s long-standing musical friends.

Noura Mint Seymali has long been a star in her native Mauritania and is regarded as a musical ambassador for the country. She is now performing in Hamburg for the very first time. Her career began at a very young age: from her grandmother she learned the specific singing techniques of the griots – a west-African form of epic song that is usually a male domain. Noura Mint Seymali provides her own accompaniment on the ardin harp, which is – in turn – only played by women. Inspired by the sound of her husband, the guitarist and tidinet player Jeich Ould Chighaly, she formed her first fusion band in 2004. Together, they mix traditional Mauritanian instruments such as the tidinet lute and the ardin harp with smoky electronic effects and swampy electric bass. The result is a fascinating tension between ancient music and funk, blues, rock and futuristic sounds.