khalab & m'berra ensemble: m'berra
Francisco Espregueira
The M’berra Refugee camp is a sprawling tent city growing in the desert, at the border between Mauritania and Mali, in West Africa. The sound, the stories of that circumstantial and spiritual intersection between Arab and Tuareg members is portrayed in M’berra, a fantastic project that joins the M’berra Ensemble with Italian producer and electro-shaman Khalab. These sounds, these stories, these memories and dreams are shaped in 12 tracks that represent an ancient-to-future experimentation, fed by the ancestors and sent spinning through space and time.
The M’berra Ensemble is produced and revamped by the brilliant work from DJ Khalab, searching for a new language of storytelling. Finding solace and beauty through music, M’berra is also filled with humanity, carrying truths that are told straight and fashioned into shapes. There is struggle and resilience, hope for self-determination and liberation. Different than what we usually share here, this is a visionary trip that deserves attention. M’berra is available in a deluxe gatefold package with yellow LP and a 32-page booklet — an extraordinary visual accompaniment showing photographs of the musicians at the M’berra camp captured by French photographer Jean-Marc Caimi alongside written accounts of the project told from a number of perspectives. Courtesy of Real World Records.
M'berra Ensemble are:
Amano Ag Issa, Mohamed Issa Ag Oumar, Ahmadou Ag Mohamed, Tinalbaraka Walet Alhassane, Alhassane Ag Abdorahmane, Taya Walet Mohamed, Aliou Ould Mohamed, Attaher Ag Mohamed, Attaye Ag Mohamed, Elhaj Ag Mohamed, Enaderfé Ag Khamma, Hamma Ag Awaissoune, Mohamed Alwafi Ag Mohamed, Khantara Ould Mohamed, Adriano Viterbini, Tommaso Cappellato, Davide Paulis, and DJ Knuf.