Mauritanian singer Noura Mint Seymali, who mixes traditional Moorish griot music with hypnotic desert rock, is set for a rare London appearance with her band tonight. Ahead of the gig, a new video for the song ‘Hebebeb (Zrag)’ has been released, featuring Noura, who plays the harp-like ardine, and husband and guitarist Jeiche Ould Chighaly on the streets of Shoreditch, just down the road from this evening’s venue, Cafe OTO. Check it out above.
The song is from last year’s Tzenni album, one of the Quietus’ albums of 2014. In our interview, Noura said: "The soul of our music is in the tradition, the melodies and the rhythms. Moorish music is an idiom that can be stretched and seen though infinite prisms, like jazz, but there’s a traditional core that’s the basis for what we have to offer the rest of the world as a pop band." Tickets for the gig are available here, while the group are also set to appear at WOMAD festival in Wiltshire on July 26.
