LEMMA – SOUAD ASLA
WOMEN OF THE SAOURA
WOMEX 19 OFFICIAL SELECTION !
The Lemma ensemble, created under the impetus of Souad Asla, comes from Saoura, the Saharan southern part of Algeria. The music of the Saoura, sometimes slow and languorous, sometimes lively and swaying, remains recognizable by the stripping of its instruments and the place occupied by the body. The voice and the hands remain the principal instruments, to which the percussions are joined. Serious or trivial, the text sings disappointed loves, insomniac watches and torments, the elegies to the Prophet and the invocations of his family. Lemma’s women artists have been and will be invited to many festivals in France and Europe.
Souad Asla, whose childhood was lulled by the melodies of this music and the hip-swings of these dances, returned after years of absence for a redemptive memorial at the place of her birth. She managed to raise the visibility of this genre by combining authenticity and exacting direction. From now on the Lemma (as meeting, assembly) takes place in public and on the stages of the world as well as being practiced, as it always was, in private and intimate encounters .
Although distinguished by its own style and staging, melodic, instrumental and choreographic innovations, the Lemma group is inspired by the collections and repertoires of the four main genres of the region: zaffânî, hadra, al-farda and gnawi
