Samir LanGus: Gnawa Healing & Trance Music from Agadir, Morocco.
Samir Langus was born and raised in the city of Agadir, Morocco and learned Gnawa from the old masters of Morocco. Gnawa is the southern Moroccan trance music with roots in pre-islamic animist traditions. Samir Langus’ NY band uses traditional instrumentation such as the lute-like Sintir and the large castanet-type Krakebs to accompany its ancient chants, but his approach is resolutely innovative (his first band was called Innov Gnawa). It is an hypnotic, take on this ecstatic, trance-inducing tradition that has enthralled and inspired generations of musicians from around the world.