The Banga ceremony is held in desert towns of southern Tunisia by the descendants of slaves from sub-Saharan Africa. As with Gnawa rituals in Morocco, participants often fall into a trance thanks to the insistent chanting and percussion from krakebs (metal castanets), and are said to become possessed by spirits.
Here the music has been fused with electric guitar, bass and computer effects courtesy of François Cambuzat and Gianna Greco of Putan Club, who have studied and filmed the ceremonies. The resulting set mixes field recordings with chugging bass riffs and brooding guitar or electronica, and creates hypnotic, exhilarating and, at times, downright spooky sounds. On stage, the duo are joined by four Banga musicians and make extensive use of their film archive. It will be interesting to see how festivalgoers at Womad react to Ifriqiyya Électrique next month.
