When two unique artists join to make something you never imagined, you get something close to this album.
Alsarah is Sudanese-born of Nubian descent and lead of group Alsarah and the Nubatones. Debruit is a french electronic artist known for his world influences, often using samples from traditional music from various cultures (mainly African) to differ himself from the vast number of still growing electronic musicians/producers, and with Aljawal he and Alsarah create a standout collab that deserves more looks than it has seen so far. With the whole album being sang entirely in Arabic, it creates an interesting atmosphere fusing traditional Arab/African instruments, with hip- hop drums, and glitchy production which makes an overall dark and progressive sound that makes the track “Jibal Alnuba” such a standout. The addition of Alsarah’s haunting vocals, also adds an air of mysticism that is only enhanced by the airy production on tracks like “Jamilla”. While this isn’t the first instance of electronic musicians using world music influences (Deep Forest comes to mind as well as others), Aljawal is truly unique in the sound that is created by Debruit & Alsarah that bridges traditional instrumentation, world vocals and modern influences, to create an album for today’s connected world. Check out their video for “Jibal Alnuba” below.
Débruit & Alsarah – “Jibal Alnuba” – Official music video from The Bow on Vimeo.