Written By:
Johan Neij
Published:
February 6, 2015
I have not heard too much Libyan music in my days, but I had a hard time coming to grip with the fact that the then Gaddafi's dictatorship in the mid 1980s could boast with their own funky version of Talking Heads' David Byrne! Yet Ahmed Fakroun's 1984 single "Soleil Soleil" hit me hard when It showed up disguised as an extended bootleg edit a few years ago.
Multi-instrumentalist Ahmed Fakroun musical career started already in the early 1970s after which he had several lengthy recording and performance se-jours in England and France. His first single "Awedny" was released in 1977, including the amazing B-side "Njoom Al Leyel" ("Night Stars") - a bass and flute drenched reggae rocker and a big favorite of mine. The balearic "Nisyan" followed in the same year, and "Awedny" ("Promise me") also gave it's name to Fakroun's first album. His big breakthrough came with the 1983 album Mots D'Amour and it's "Soleil Soleil", combining traditional Arab instruments and melodies with modern electronic music and dance rhythms.
But then the US started their aerial bombing of Libya in April 1986, followed by years of international sanctions and isolation, as evidence of terror links turned Libya's government into a pariah of the West and seriously impeded its citizens' freedom of movement and Fakroun's international career plans were effectively put on ice. In the meantime in Libya's neighboring country Algeria, Rai music boomed and it's prime ambassador Khaled became the bright star of "world music", that was successfully marketed in Europe.
In later years however, obscurity-hungry club DJs have rediscovered a couple of Fakroun's old hits and it has popped up several remixes of Fakroun material. Prince Language's gracefully extended version of Soleil Soleil, renamed "Yo Son", is, in my opinion, the grooviest of the bunch yet, Les Edits Du Golem's version of "Nisyan", retitled "Pyramid" coming up close. But then again the two originals surely stands tall as they are.
Fakroun's music is still waiting a proper reissue treatment on vinyl but the man himself have made parts of his catalogue available for purchase digitally through cdbaby and discogs.
*words: Johan Neij / Jono's Audio Delights
**photo credits