GNAWA ELECTRIC LAUNE is the magical collaboration between Moroccan Gnawa-master (malem) Rabii Harnoune and Frankfurt electronic producer V.B.Khl. Recorded at Achim Sauers 7V-Studio, collectively Rabii Harnoune & V.B. Khl have produced an LP which represents entirely new territory, building a bridge from old to new, from Africa to Europe, and from to person to person. This melange of traditional North African Gnawa music and modern club sounds results in a fascinating debut, cross-cultural friction which is electric and otherworldly. Gnawa music was exclusively played by families whose parents came from Sub-Saharan or Central African tribes to Morocco in colonial times Rabii explains, it was rare to be able to listen to Gnawa music on radio, so I started to collect rare live recordings. Rabiis mastery at the Guembri, a three-string lute and Gnawa singing (a central aspect to the culture), would lead him to play world-class festivals in Essaouira, Fes, Marrakesh, and Casablanca all spiritual centres for the genre. V.B.Khl realised his own musical vision and ambition when he inherited his first ghettoblaster (boombox) and bought a four-track recorder: rhythm is deep in me, and although music is not my profession, the passion never stopped.
