Sidi Bémol presents « Guellal Montréal »
When: 25.09.2026 20:00
Where: 48.889226, 2.393522
Organizer: Admin
His 13th album as a singer‑songwriter, which marks 30 years of his career, will be released on 18/09/2026 in digital format and on CD by CSB Productions / L’Autre Distribution.
It is also worth noting the release of a book on 18 September 2026, including texts, translations, scores…
"Guellal Montréal" — a musical project born from the meeting of Berber traditions of north‑west Algeria and the Indigenous cultures of Quebec. Through this album Hosin Bukella continues the artistic investigation, begun several years ago, around the gelal — an ancient Berber percussion, melhuna, singing poetry considered one of the ancestors of rai, and possible resonances between this heritage and the spirituality of Indigenous Americans.
Participants: Hosin BUKELLA: vocals and guitar; Youssef BUKELLA: bass and backing vocals; Abdenur JEMAÏ: guitar and backing vocals; Maamun DEKHANE: drums and backing vocals.
Guest: Mehdi ASKÖR: gelal and backing vocals.
Album:
The starting point of this album is the gelal, the central instrument of Oran folk music. With its deep basses and dry strikes it has accompanied for centuries the melhuna songs, this poetic verse performed by singer‑poets who speak of the world in cafés, markets and folk festivals. At a young age, the discovery of masters such as Sheikh Hamada deeply influenced Hosin Bukella. Enthralled by blues and rock, he immediately felt a kinship between melhuna and blues: the same emotional intensity, the same way of turning poetry into vibration.
During his trips to Quebec he discovered Indigenous cultures through their music and, above all, their poetry. The texts of Josephine Bacon or Natasha Canape Fontaine created in him an emotion close to that which he felt before traditional Berber poetry. Despite the distance between these peoples, he found a common connection with nature, memory and the living. It was from this intuition that Guellal Montréal was born: a dialogue between languages, rhythms and imaginations. The songs blend Arabic, Kabyle, French and English, and are inspired both by melhuna and by traditional or contemporary Indigenous texts.
To realize the project he collaborated with Takfarinas Kishu, a percussionist and Quebec luthier of Algerian origin, met in Montreal. Enthralled by traditional world rhythms, Sidi Bemol developed a unique approach to the gelal, creating his own instruments and integrating modern and Indigenous American influences into them.
Guellal Montréal is an album of transmission and blending, where traditions freely dialogue with contemporary sounds. A musical journey between Algeria and Quebec, between ancient memory and modern creativity.
Tags: live music, concert, music
Source: https://www.paris.fr/evenements/sidi-bemol-presente-guellal-montreal-114975
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