Noura Mint Seymali
Noura Mint Seymali offers a surprising mix of traditional and psychedelic blues with influences from her home country of Mauritania.
She and her husband and guitarist Jeiche Ould Chighaly come from a long line of traditional griots: story tellers, poets, praise singers. They know how to combine this art with the melancholy beauty of the Mauritanian desert landscape.
Noura started her career at the age of 13 as a backing vocalist of the legendary singer (and her step-mother) Dimi Mint Abba. Her father taught her the basics of composing and from her grandmother, she learnt how to play multiple instruments, including the ardine. The ardine is an instrument that has traditionally only been played by women.
Her debut album “Tzenni” (2014) was hailed by the press as one of the best African releases at the time. In 2016, second album “Arbina” came out. In November 2015, she is going to release her new album “Yenbett”. On this new record, Noura will showcase a powerful fusion of traditional Morish music and desert rock, all of it on Seymani’s raw sounding ardine and with her mesmerizing singing. Noura has collaborated in the past with legends like Tinariwen and Bassekou Kouyaté.
Highly recommended to fans of desert blues and psychedelic rock in the line of Tinariwen, Ali Farka Touré, Tamikrest and even Captain Beefheart.
