The oriental sound of the new millennium is here!

If you love traditional oriental music blending rai, reggae, funk and Latino beats, you mustn’t miss Sawt El Atlas. And if you’re not yet into that kind of music, you will be soon ! Fronted by the warm voices of singers Kamel and Mounir, the ten-piece band are genuine party animals and have a gift for sweeping audiences off their feet.

Sawt El Atlas ’ sophisticated new album Donia draws increasingly deeply on their multicultural inspiration.

As Sawt El Atlas like to say: “In Morocco, they look on us as French people, and in France, as Moroccans. Although we have two cultures, we don't belong to either country specifically.”

The original line-up of Sawt El Atlas consisted of three brothers from each of two families, the Mirghanis (originally from Southern Morocco) and the El Habchis (from Casablanca). They were later joined by four other musicians. Lead singers Kamel and Mounir and their brothers grew up in the suburbs of Blois in the centre of France. Jack Lang, former culture minister and founder of the France’s music day (every June 21st.), is actually mayor of Blois and is very supportive to the Band.

Sawt El Atlas started to hit the road in the nineties when they were just 12, and since then have played at many festivals in France, Holland and Germany (the Rennes Transmusicales, the La Rochelle Francofolies, the Printemps de Bourges, the Arezzo Festival, the Tilburg Festival, the Roskilde Festival, etc.), and they have supported a number of major artists on tour (Massilia Sound System, Khaled, Cheb Mami, Keziah Jones, Tonton David, etc.). In 1996, after more than 200 gigs, they released their first CD, entitled Généraliser (Generalising), produced by Daniel Jamet former member of Mano Negra. It was a lively album swept along by its Arabic-French lyrics, which were deliberately positive even when they attacked the precarious nature of everyday social integration:

“Que tu sois chômeur, balayeur, ingénieur

que tu sois un blanc, un black, ou un beur

Sache qu'il n'y a pas de différence, ni de préférence, ici on danse”

“Whether you're on the dole, a street sweeper or an engineer,

Whether you're white, black, or Arab,

Remember there’s no difference, no preference: here, we dance...”

And when they hear clichés about the council estates, Sawt El Atlas reply: “We’re the answer, not the problem...”

Earlier in 1999, Sawt El Atlas signed to Sony's Small label and now, in October, they have released a new, enthusiastic and firmly mature album, mainly sung in Arabic, but with some French too. They began to record Donia in Paris, in the studio of Sodi, the producer of Les Negresses Vertes, Femi Kuti and IAM, but it was completed in Cairo, the crossroads of modern Arabic music where a true oriental sound can be obtained using local instruments such as the Kawala flute, oud, quanoun, Egyptian percussion and Egypt’s legendary string formations (some who played with Oum Kalsoum). Donia was mixed by Carmen Rizzo who has worked with Prince, Khaled and Zebda among others.

The generous nature of singer-songwriters Kamel and Mounir, aged 22 and 21 respectively, has combined with their brothers’ talent and the background of the other musicians to produce a perfect blend of oriental roots and modern groove. This time, the album's lyrics focus on the world’s most universal theme: love. Donia’s twelve songs are a hymn to love, respectively devoted to mothers, couples, people in general, life and God. All were written as original pop songs: the radio-friendly first single Ne Me Jugez-Pas (Don’t judge me), the oriental jungle of Ness featuring Natacha Atlas, a long-time friend of the band, the flamenco leanings of Andalucia, the groove-reggae of Datna and the eponymous track, Donia...

Obviously an international invitation !