The Moroccan female gimbri-icon, Asmâa Hamzaoui, returns to Copenhagen with her gnawa group Bnat Timbouktou this September. We can’t wait to experience the group when they take the stage at Krudttønden with seductive rhythms, chanting and extraordinary gimbri playing.

Asmâa Hamzaoui was only 20 years old when she, as the first female gimbri player, started her own gnawa group Bnat Timbouktou back in 2012. Ever since, the group has instantly won the attention of their audience wherever they perform their ritualistic and rhythmically seductive music. Asmâa has become a role model and pioneer for a whole generation of young women in Morocco. Traditionally, the gimbri has been reserved for men, and when Asmâa a couple of years ago first took the stage at Essaouria, the country’s most important gnawa event, she was the first female musician ever to stand there.

Despite a lot of bumps in the road to recognition, Asmâa Hamzaoui in her own words only feels tryly at home with the gimbri in her hand. Together with Bnat Timbouktou, she has crossed Morocco’s borders already. With the very distinctive sound of the gimbri and Asmâa’s beautiful voice at the center, the soundscape of Asmâa Hamzaoui & Bnat Timbouktou is filled with the backing vocals and the characteristic sound of the metal castagnettes, qraqap. The rhythms and chanting adds to the ecstatic ambiance of live gnawa music. We’ve been lucky to present Asmâa and her group once before at ALICE, and we can’t wait to have them back this September.