Zar Electrik

This trio from Marseille – Anass Zine, Arthur Péneau, and Didier Simione – play electronic dance music that pays homage to Gnawa, Sub-Saharan African, and North African music and cultures, folding all into an electronic dance music that defies borders. The trio’s traditional instrumentation includes oud, guembri (a bass lute common in Gnawa music), and electric kora, with synthesizer and other electronics in the mix. “Zar” is a reference to a trance state achieved in ancient Ethiopian and Egyptian rituals, and the band’s free-spirited, joyful, electric trance dance music is a compelling blend of the traditional and the modern. “At the heart of Zar Electrik’s music, dance reigns supreme, experienced like a transcendental, liberating rite” (Nova, 2023).