ASMAA HAMZAOUI & BNAT TIMBOUKTOU

Asmaa Hamzaoui is the foremost female ambassador of Gnawa music. With her group Bnat Timbouktou, she delivers a contagious brand of evangelistic desert blues.

A new wave is washing over Gnawa, the traditional North African music genre started by the Gnawa people of Morocco. Despite being an essential part of the tradition, only now are female bands appearing - and Asmâa Hamzaoui and the group Bnat Timboktou are leading the way. On the studio and the stage, Hamzaoui and the guembri (the traditional three-stringed bass lute she was taught as a child) are spotlighted, as the qraqeb clacks beneath Hamzaoui’s evocative voice. As one of the genre’s few and youngest female ambassadors, Hamzaoui and the band foster ‘transformation through preservation’ ...