MUSIC OF THE SHIKHAT

Via ghostcapital: a most incredible sample of Tunisian Shikhat dance music recorded by soloist and choreographer Mardi Rollow. Shikhat are "female performers in Moroccan society whose singing and dancing are central to all festivity, including rites of passage like marriage ceremonies and birth and circumcision celebrations. Despite their centrality, however, Shikhat are socially marginal due to the license that they exhibit both in performance and in their 'off-stage' lives" (JSTOR). Dancers sing, perform complicated handclap rhythms and work with finger cymbals. The joyous intensity of this music is arguably not higher than, but definitely very different from, traditional Western wedding music like this (which does still give me goosebumps).

Listen to Music from the Shikhat here.

SUBLIME FREQUENCIES PRESENTS: MUSICAL BROTHERHOODS FROM THE TRANS-SAHARAN HIGHWAY

Filmed mainly at the Jemaa Al Fna in Marrakesh, this hour focuses on street music played in and between Marrakesh and Essaouira by traders and travelers, as they have done for centuries, along the Trans-Saharan Highway. Featuring electric ouds, mandolins, banjos, the Gwana sentir, and mindblowing vocals. "Ecstasy" in its most literal manifestation.

ECSTATIC MUSIC OF THE JEMAA EL FNA: TROUPE MAJIDI - ESSINIYA, KHOUDRINI

Music recorded in 2005 by Hisham Mayet in Jemaa el Fna (Rendezvous of the Dead), a central square in Marrakesh. 

Available through Sublime Frequencies.

TROUPE MAJIDI - Essiniya



TROUPE MAJIDI - Khoudrini