WOMAD

Huariyat Al Kasbah

From Morocco

2000 Biography: This is the first ever trip to the UK by this all-female traditional singing and percussion group of Berber women from the Houra region of Morocco; a farming region south of Marrakesh, where their songs of love and devotion are played at feasts and weddings. Those who attended the 1998 WOMAD Festival in Reading may well be reminded of B’Net Houariyat, and not surprisingly – the group previously went under the very same name. This is because the name translates as ‘girl’s music’ from the Houara region near Agadir – and is a musical style rather than a particular group. Mark Hudson of the Daily Telegraph describes their music thus: "… beating on drums, tambourines and what looks like a steel hub-cap, their throaty, exultant voices falling into an endless re-echoing round… the music has a blood-stirring rawness, a Homeric sense of oneness with the ancient rock and earth." This is true Berber trance music, incorporating a heady mix of percussion, chants and hip-twitching dance."