Khalab

This is the sound, the story, of the M’berra Ensemble, a collective of Malian musicians from the M’berra Refugee Camp in southeast Mauritania, and Italian producer and electro-shaman Khalab. In a sprawling tent city rising out of the desert, out of nothingness, at the border with Mali in West Africa, brought together by spirit and circumstance, the group’s Arab and Tuareg members — some unknown, some who have previously toured Europe — find solace and beauty in music and song.

This is the sound, the story, of the M’berra Ensemble, a collective of Malian musicians from the M’berra Refugee Camp in southeast Mauritania, and Italian producer and electro-shaman Khalab. In a sprawling tent city rising out of the desert, out of nothingness, at the border with Mali in West Africa, brought together by spirit and circumstance, the group’s Arab and Tuareg members — some unknown, some who have previously toured Europe — find solace and beauty in music and song.

Tenesha the Wordsmith, who came to the fore on On The Corner Records' 2018 release Black Noise 2084, has delivered a hard-cutting, gut-wrenching, and extremely moving spoken-word album produced by Khalab that brings together different lines of black music – folkloric, jazz, and electronic dance – into an Afro-futurist narrative with thunderous results. Peacocks & Other Savage Beasts lays bare difficult truths and projects the stories of hidden voices, with a warm and heartfelt delivery that envelops the soul.