A voice, timeless as the desert, swirls up like the sirocco, drenched in cavernous reverberation, accompanied by the solitary, meditative swells of the ardine, an acoustic harp that dials in the fundamental frequency of Noura Mint Seymali’s music.

A brief pause, and the same refrain returns, this time picked out on a heavily flanged electric guitar, grounded by thunderous drums and growling electric bass. And there’s that voice again - direct and urgent, careening off into wild ululations and refracted echo. That’s the opening two tracks on Yenbett, the brand-new album by Mauritanian force of nature, Noura Mint Seymali. In just under four and a half minutes, these two versions of the song ‘Lehjibb’ set the tone for what’s to come - a trance-inducing and ferociously evocative blend of ancient Northwest African musical tradition and searing, electrified Saharan future rock.

Noura Mint Seymali is a living embodiment of musical tradition. She hails from a family of musical visionaries: her father, Seymali Ould Ahmed Vall, was a renowned composer and scholar and her stepmother, Dimi Mint Abba, was a cherished singer and performer. Seymali is a practising griot - equal parts poet, singer, musician, historian and cultural custodian - and a living embodiment of Mauritania’s tradition of Moorish griot music.

‘The griots are highly respected lineages in our culture and are a source of social cohesion and social history that endures,’ Seymail explains. ‘We are still a kind of mirror for society, reflecting back the social bonds and history to the people. It’s still the griots who are the artist celebrants of traditional weddings and ceremonies. And it’s still griot representing the culture as artist ambassadors.’ In this role, Seymali performs as a powerful vocalist with both a deep connection to the griot’s timeless repertoire, and an urge to create fresh, contemporary messages. ‘I have songs about a wide range of topics: love songs, praise songs, songs for dancing, narrative songs. In our tradition, poetry from different sources can be stitched together in a performance.

I start with a core of my own, there are lines that I write, others I quote or reference in the way a jazz musician might riff on another song in the tradition, but the composite is always a new creation and the cleverness with which a singer can synthesize poetry in a kind of musical mosaic is indeed a part of the artform.’

1. Bidayett Lehjibb
2. Lehjibb
3. Guéreh
4. Wezeun (Lebteït)
5. Knou
6. Moughadim Karr
7. Jraad
8. Radatt Lebiyaad
9. Tassirit
10. El Vaïz (Seni Karr)
11. Ch’tib (Naha)
12. Wezeun (Vaghou)
13. Hagala Geyeul
14. Wezeun (Likhal Karr)
15. Lebleida