Ifrikya Spirit’s music is rooted in Algeria, but open to the music of Africa and the world. The group spurs its Berber roots to explore and share new sounds and forms. 

When musicians from 42 African countries converged on Algiers in 2009 for the Pan-African Festival, it was a major event. For the members of Ifrikya Spirit, it proved a major turning point in their creative lives. The visiting musicians went home, but they left a plethora of instruments behind.

“There were lots of instruments like the balafon and the kamale ngoni, traditional West African instruments,” recalls Chakib Bouzidi, Ifrikya’s inventive founding member. “We started to play around with them. It went so well, we decided to create a band, and we called it Ifrikya Spirit. Our goal is to play all sorts of music, like salsa, blues, and reggae, but with an African spirit.”

West African instruments are welcomed and enjoined with global sensibilities. Playing goumbri, djembe, kamale n'goni, balafon, saxophone, karkabou (crotales), guitar, keyboard and drums, Ifrikya Spirit underpin conversations between African musics and global forms with the spiritual and cultural expressions of Algeria.

"A stand-out with a unique sound at the melting point of new composition and instrumental abundance, with messages of peace and inter-African solidarity, all rooted in the rituals of the diwan."

(Algerie Presse Service)