Emel

Ensen

Urgent, stirring stuff from Tunisian singer-songwriter.

Emel Mathlouthi looks like a cross between Juliette Binoche and Edith Piaf, and sounds like a blend of Les Voix Bulgares and random tracks from This Mortal Coil – exotic, meditative, demanding, occasionally warlike. Her track Kelmti Horra (My Word is Free) was a viral anthem during the Arab Spring, and since then she’s been known as the “voice of the Tunisian revolution”. The mix of electronica, Arabic/Tunisian instruments and North African drumming, plus her ululating vocals, ranges from rousing and moving to dark and discordant – there’s a cawing harshness to Mathlouthi’s delivery that stops you in your tracks. Pounding, imperative Ensen Dhaif is clubby as Transglobal Underground, vamped up with zukra (Tunisian flute), gumbri (a bass lute) and giant bendir frame drums; Layem could be a marching army of tribal Amazons; while Fi Kolli Yawmen offers washes of heavenly vocals. Another world entirely.