“Delicious raw, deep, hypnotic and spiritual Gnawa music from Morocco.” (Mr. Bongo)

Maalem Houssam Guinia (MA) is the son and successor of the late Maalem Mahmoud Gania (RIP), an iconic figure in West African Gnawa music, which is passed down in the family from generation to generation.  

The genre features profoundly hypnotic and repetitive rhythms to which spiritual and healing powers are attributed. A beautiful demonstration of this is Mahmoud’s latest studio album, Colours of the Night (2017), an absolute BRDCST classic.  

Incidentally, Dad not only collaborated with Pharoah Sanders, but with free jazz icon Peter Brötzmann, Floating Points and James Holden. His son has kept this fine tradition going, working with Holden on Three Live Takes (2018), released on Holden’s Border Community label.  

This brings us to the lovely album جوف الليل (‘Dead of Night’), released on the British label Hive Mind Records. Recorded overnight by Maalem Houssam Guinia in a house in Casablanca, it reached number one on The Wire’s Best Global Albums list in 2024.  

The basis of his raw signature sound is the guembri: a three-stringed, skin-covered plucked lute. And for those who want to get completely up to speed: ‘maalem’ means something like ‘master musician’. Spot on!