Gnawa Music Of Marrakesh - Night Spirit Masters [Zehra 009 Promo]

Put out on the album circuit on August 19th, 2k22, actually 32 years after its initial first release, is "Night Spirit Masters", the 1990 longplay release by Gnawa Music Of Marrakesh, an often praised essential exploration of music from the Middle East, especially today's Morocco. Panned out over a total playtime of roughly 49 minutes and eleven tracks the album, originally produced by Bill Laswell and Richard Horowitz, deeply immerses the listener in the complex, polyrhythmic and trance-inducing sonic landscapes, percussion layers and hypnotic chants native to the Medina of Marrakesh, an ancient music that speaks to levels of the listeners self beyond any cultural context, especially when presenting tribal'esque rhythm signatures in their most ecstatic form in pieces like "Tramin" whereas the subsequent "Chabako" works its way all up from slow grooves to a full on fast paced peak, "Toura Toura Tour Kelilah" introduces a powerful interplay of call-and-response chants and muscular drums which are to be found in many a music of African decent whereas pieces like "Jillala" even seem to represent a Gnawa take on original Desert Blues before the closing cut that is "Hamouda" dabbles with deeply nocturnal Tribal chants and drum minimalisms just to name a few. Defo a well interesting first glimpse on and gateway to the ancient world of Gnawa music, this.