280: Arbina, by Noura Mint Seymali

Noura Mint Seymali (Mauritania)
Arbina (2016)
10 tracks, 41 minutes
Bandcamp ∙ Spotify ∙ iTunes

In February, I featured the album Moorish Music from Mauritania by Dimi Mint Abba and Khalifa Ould Eide. That album is a classic of Mauritanian music, in the griot style of the country’s Bidhan (Moorish) people. Mint Abba’s voice is legendary, and the accompaniment of ardin (bridge-harp), tidinit (lute) and very occasionally electric guitar brought forth the sound of the Sahara. The repertoire on that album was in a very traditional style.

Apart from Mint Abba, however, and especially after her death in 2011, the international music scene had a real dearth of Bidhan musicians, such a shame considering their unique musical style. That was until Noura Mint Seymali exploded onto the scene with her 2014 debut album on Glitterbeat Records, Tzenni, and this follow-up from 2016, Arbina.

Mint Seymali is the step-daughter of Dimi Mint Abba, but unlike her elder and mentor, she isn’t content to stick to playing her people’s traditional music. With her guitarist husband Jeiche Ould Chighaly, the music they create together is an altogether more rocking affair, but one that retains all of the most intoxicating elements of the centuries-old styles. The result is one that is still undoubtedly from that magical crossroads between the Mande, Songhoy, Tuareg, Amazigh, Arab, Gnawa, Saharawi, Fula and Wolof people that surround the Mauritanian Sahara from all sides. Mint Seymali’s voice has that beautiful mix of Arabic ornamentation and the bluesy, pentatonic feel of the music of the slightly further south.

The band here is a modified rock set-up. Of the four musicians, there is drum kit, bass guitar, electric guitar and vocals, with Mint Seymali also adding the ardin – the indispensable instrument of female Bidhan griots. The bass and drum kit are far from traditional Mauritanian instruments but nevertheless create a groove that is based on the rhythms of the tbal drum, as well as the rock greats – I’d have bassist Ousmane Touré in my fantasy funky blues band any day, his lines are so solid. Ould Chighaly’s electric guitar really helps anchor the music in place. This isn’t your standard electric guitar, it’s a Nouakchott speciality – for every one fret that yer bog standard blooze player has, Ould Chighaly has two. That means he gets to access the notes in between the notes, and it’s these quarter tones that allow him to so accurately convey the nuances of the tidinit to the axe, with as much or as little distortion as appropriate. Just these three musicians alone could create melon-twisting music as a trio – like Cream if they were fuelled by Saharan sand and campfire tea rather than blues and cocaine. I actually also get a proper 60s folk rock thing from them at points – check out the song ‘Ghlana’ with its wailing slide guitar that could be straight out of early Tull – yowch! And that’s all without even taking into account the spectacular and spellbinding voice of Mint Seymali up front, roaring incredibly intricate melodies with utmost dignity.

I’m really glad that Noura Mint Seymali came around when she did. Coming on the same wave of mainstream appreciation for the rockier elements of that Saharan sound including Tinariwen and Songhoy Blues, Mint Seymali and her musicians give the Mauritanian griot style an important look-in. When a musical tradition is so unique and instantly recognisable as this, it would be a crime to let it go unheard. It also helps that it sounds amazing played as loud as possible by musicians unafraid of cranking up the drive dial and sinking fully into that fist-pumping groove.

055: Moorish Music from Mauritania, by Khalifa Ould Eide & Dimi Mint Abba

Khalifa Ould Eide & Dimi Mint Abba (Mauritania)
Moorish Music from Mauritania (1990)
11 tracks, 68 minutes
Bandcamp • Spotify • iTunes

This album was one of the first releases from the now-legendary World Circuit Records, as well as one of the earliest releases of Mauritanian music intended for a wider international audience.

The music of Mauritania is a mirror to the country’s geographic and cultural position. Mostly in the Sahara desert, the country marks the crossover between the Arabic and Berber cultures to the north and the Mande, Songhai and Wolof cultures to the south. The music of the Bidhan (or Moorish) population of Mauritania reflects this well: their melodies are mostly pentatonic but with ornaments that sound almost like classical Arabic music at points; their string instruments such as the ardin and tidinit resemble the donsongoni and the ngoni of the south, but their drums and percussion are more Arabic. It’s a fascinating sound, but what really attracts me is that it is so, so bluesy all the way through. Just listen to the chorus melody on the first track, ‘Waidalal Waidalal’ – it’s got some crystal clear examples of blues notes that make me want to do a full-on power ballad fist-pump.

Although guitarist and tidinit player Khalifa Ould Eide is given the first credit on the album cover, I cast no shade upon his skill when I say that it is most definitely Dimi Mint Abba who is the star of this one. Her voice is sublime. The control she holds over the notes she sings is absolute, allowing her to make incredibly subtle changes to the pitch and tone to give the slightest difference in inflection, changing the whole emotional atmosphere of a passage. Her high notes soar over the low-pitched tbal drums and she can go from quiet and delicate to straight-up roaring without so much as a blink. She was said to be the favourite singer of Malian guitarist Ali Farka Touré, and it’s a real pity that there seems to be no recordings of them playing together – especially as they both shared a record label for a long time.

Mauritania is still rather underrepresented on the world stage of music, I feel, although lately a star has emerged in Noura Mint Seymali – perhaps it’s not a coincidence that she is Dimi Mint Abba’s step-daughter. Whether it is the more traditional style of music as heard on Moorish Music from Mauritania or the rockier stuff that Noura has been making the world dance to, I would love for this wonderful music to get more exposure. Maybe I should start a #MoreMauritanianMusic campaign…