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Colours Of The Night

05/06/2018Maalem Mahmoud Gania’s Final Studio Recordings
 

Hailing from the port city of Essaouira, the late Maalem Mahmoud Gania ranks among the most prolific and highly respected recording musicians in Morocco. A singer and master guimbri player (a three-stringed lute used mainly in traditional Gnawa music), Gania released several albums on various Moroccan labels and collaborated with international artists the likes of Pharoah Sanders (US), Peter Brötzmann (D), James Holden (UK) and Floating Points (UK).

Last year, two years after Gania's passing in 2015, Brighton-based record label Hive Mind Records posthumously released an 8-track album of his final studio recordings. "Colours of the Night" features "deep, hypnotic Gnawa songs" ranging from 8 to 11 minutes in length and marked by Gania's wailing vocals. Trance-like in form, "Gnawa is a musical and spiritual tradition originating in sub-Saharan Africa that has survived as a subculture within Moroccan society for centuries. The roots of the blues can be heard in its hypnotic rhythms." 

Colours of the Night is Gania's first album to receive a vinyl release. You can listen to album opener "Sadati Houma El Bouhala" in the SoundCloud player above or buy/stream the album in full via Bandcamp.

AUTHOR: Lev Nordstrom