Zar Electrik: Tiny Desk x globalFEST

Lars Gotrich | April 2, 2025
In 2021, the Tiny Desk x globalFEST series was created to promote international music discovery. For the fifth edition, we present artists from Cabo Verde, France and Colombia.

Gnawa music has always been about breaking down barriers. With ecstatic vocalizations, stringed instruments and clashing percussion, this sound has roots in Morocco, but its West African influences are disparate and the diaspora is wide. Zar Electrik, a trio from Marseille, France, taps into that centuries-long tradition at the Tiny Desk.

Zar Electrik, whose name references a healing ritual from the Horn of Africa, takes a modern approach to Gnawa, not only infusing the music with electronic production but also an electric kora — creating a sub-Saharan rave sung in Arabic, French and Darija. "Chouf enour" is a cry for freedom, performed by vocalist Anass Zine with passion and empathy. He smiles as he briefly sings in English, "I love you, my sister / I love you, my brother." The trio closes with "Bala dima," an ode to the mystic nature of night — in the broad daylight of the NPR Music office, ululation erupted from a crowd transported to a midnight trance.

SET LIST
"Chouf enour"
"Bala dima"

MUSICIANS
Anass Zine: vocals, guitar, karkabous
Arthur Péneau: vocals, kora
Didier Simione: electronics

TINY DESK TEAM
Producer: Suraya Mohamed
Director/Editor: Maia Stern
Audio Technical Director: Josh Newell
Host/Series Producer: Bobby Carter
Videographers: Maia Stern, Kara Frame, Wendy Li
Audio Engineer: Andie Huether
Audio Mix: Josephine Nyounai
Production Assistant: Dora Levite
Photographer: Sofia Seidel
Creative Designer: Jackie Lay
Tiny Desk Team: Lars Gotrich, Joshua Bryant, Ashley Pointer
globalFEST Team: Isabel Soffer, Bill Bragin, Shanta Thake, Priscila Santana, Ian Thake
Series Creators: Bob Boilen, Stephen Thompson
VP, Visuals and Music: Keith Jenkins

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