AKUPHONE

KahruMusiqa is a musical retrospective of Badiâa Bouhrizi AKA Neysatu one of the first Tunisian female electronic music producer. Almost eighteen years of music produced in London, Tunis and Paris. She is known as the writer behind protest songs that became hymns of the Tunisian revolution, like Labess. But only a handful knows that she also composed and produced their music.

KahruMusiqa means electronic music, but is never used as such in Arabic to name the genre. The record is a collection of sonic experimentations that started when she first got her hands on music production software in the 2000s. They are based on poems in classical Arabic language or Tunisian dialect written by Badiâa herself or female poets she admires, such as the Palestinians Fadwa Tuqan or Salma Al Jayusi, or the Tunisian poet Noureddine Werghi. Most of the vocal work are improvisations recorded with a computer microphone. A take on the classic Turkish Folk song Muhabbat is almost a modern harmonic rewriting, using only classical guitar, vocals and delays.

The themes present in KahruMusiqa are in line with Badiâa Bouhrizi ideological trajectory. She is a queer woman in the moving sands of Tunesia in the song Transfemale Touness Al Mouta7arrika. She also questions the political contract that led to Balfour and the displacement of millions of Palestinians in 1948, describing a journey between London and Nablus, in Fil Madinatil harima (“In The Old City").

Her metrics, sound scape and melodies are strongly influenced by traditional African and Arabic music.

This lo-fi bedroom album also displays several songs that have become classics of the Arab underground milieu like Ila Selma, and is the first ever record Badiâa Bouhrizi was willing to release.