World Music: Souad Massi - Zagate

Influenced by electric rock, Saharan folk, and Arabic-language blues, and enhanced by her warm voice and poetic lyrics long associated with tenderness and melancholy…

This is undoubtedly the most uninhibited work of Souad Massi’s career—an artist honored with numerous Gold Records and a Victoire de la Musique award—where “the gentleness of her voice clashes with the gravity of the world” through lyrics connected to current conflicts, violence, freedom, and memory… Twenty-seven years after her debut and her first album *Raoui*, which introduced her to an international audience, she continues on her path by creating eleven tracks that reflect her artistic vision across an ever-broader sonic palette. A patchwork of rhythmic influences—a tapestry of Gnawa percussion, electro loops, and electric riffs in the track “Samt”—draws on her artistic collaborations with English guitarist Justin Adamas and Franco-Rwandan rapper and writer Gael Faye. All of this is geared toward a single goal: broadening our perspective on the world without losing a glimmer of hope! In the face of chaos, Souad Massi’s pure voice delivers socially conscious lyrics, building bridges between the two shores of the Mediterranean.