Gnawi musician Brahim Belkane has performed alongside rock icons Jimmy Page and Robert Plant and jazz legend Dizzy Gillespie, but his acoustic, trance-inducing music — derived from Morocco’s one-time slave-underclass sect of Sufi mystics — remains an enigma. This CD/DVD is a long-overdue documentof the ritual art, with nuanced performances from Belkane and others, mostly recorded in private homes. Fueled by percussive rattles, handclaps, and the three-stringed guimbri, propulsive yet low-key pieces like “Turku Lila” and the title track entrance from half a world away.
