{"id":8114,"date":"2016-08-31T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-08-31T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/2016\/08\/31\/songs-we-love-noura-mint-seymali-na-sane\/"},"modified":"2016-08-31T13:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-08-31T13:00:00","slug":"songs-we-love-noura-mint-seymali-na-sane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/songs-we-love-noura-mint-seymali-na-sane\/","title":{"rendered":"Songs We Love: Noura Mint Seymali, &#039;Na Sane&#039;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-style:italic;font-size:16px\">By  <a class=\"colorbox\" href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/2016\/08\/31\/491931659\/songs-we-love-noura-mint-seymali-na-sane?utm_medium=RSS&amp;utm_campaign=world\">Anastasia Tsioulcas<\/a><\/span>  <\/p>\n<div class=\"ftpimagefix\" style=\"float:left\"><a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/2016\/08\/31\/491931659\/songs-we-love-noura-mint-seymali-na-sane?utm_medium=RSS&amp;utm_campaign=world\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/media.npr.org\/assets\/img\/2016\/08\/30\/noura-mint-seymali-credit-by-bechir-malum-01_wide-5bc94c543a3ea2e96c3a747c3776b4601bfa5e36-s1100-c15.jpg\" alt=\"\"><\/a><\/div>\n<div>\n<div><button>Enlarge this image<\/button><\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p>Noura Mint Seymali with her bandmates Ousmane Tour\u00e9, Jeiche Ould Chighaly and Matthew Tinari. <strong>Bechir Malum\/Courtesy of the artist<\/strong> <strong>hide caption<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>toggle caption<\/strong> <span>Bechir Malum\/Courtesy of the artist<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>It was just <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/2014\/01\/09\/261067254\/noura-mint-seymali-globalfest-2014\">two years ago<\/a> that Mauritanian vocalist Noura Mint Seymali hit the international scene \u2014 but now, it&#8217;s hard to imagine the scope of African music without her. The singer and her band blow listeners away with giddily woozy and dreamlike vocals; blistering guitar played by her husband, Jeiche Ould Chighaly; and the grounding elements of Ousmane Tour\u00e9&#8217;s bass and Matthew Tinari&#8217;s drums.<\/p>\n<p>Now, Seymali is about to release her second internationally available album, <em>Arbina<\/em>. She&#8217;s kicking things off with a video \u2014 for her song &#8220;Na Sane&#8221; \u2014 that gives audiences abroad a little glimpse of her native land, which is wedged between the Berber and Arab countries of northwestern Africa and the sub-Saharan south. The desert stretches over the vast majority of Mauritania&#8217;s territory and is capped by the Richat Structure, a famous &#8220;bull&#8217;s-eye&#8221; \u2014 also known as the &#8220;Eye of the Sahara&#8221; \u2014 that astronauts can <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/multimedia\/imagegallery\/image_feature_528.html\">see from space<\/a>. Just over 4 million people live in this country that is nearly twice as big as Texas. It&#8217;s a severe and unforgiving landscape, but one that possesses a very particular kind of melancholy beauty.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div>[embedded content]<\/div>\n<div><strong>YouTube<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Director Lo\u00efc Hoquet and producer-drummer Tinari decided to shoot the video for &#8220;Na Sane&#8221; on a road trip through Mauritania. They rented a Toyota Hilux pick-up truck and a black Mercedes taxi and set off on the road that links Mauritania&#8217;s capital city, Nouakchott, with its second-largest city, Nouadhibou (population roughly 118,000), near the border of <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/thesalt\/2012\/12\/12\/167112259\/many-cups-of-tea-the-business-of-sipping-in-western-sahara\">Western Sahara<\/a> territory.<\/p>\n<p>The scenes from the road are intercut with glimpses of a party \u2014 and everyone in the video is a relative or friend of Seymali and Chighaly. As Tinari wrote in an email, &#8220;Essentially, we just threw an impromptu family barbecue. One of the dancers is Noura&#8217;s brother Baba; some of the younger boys are nephews of Jeiche. The girl dancer is a friend from the neighborhood. It was a family affair!&#8221;<\/p>\n<div>\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/media.npr.org\/assets\/img\/2016\/08\/30\/noura-mint-seymali---arbina-3500-_sq-7dc04a6341048f4e79afa53abc2bb257bdf7999e-s800-c15.jpg\" alt=\"\"><\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p>Noura Mint Seymali, <em>Arbina<\/em>. <strong>Courtesy of the artist<\/strong> <strong>hide caption<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>toggle caption<\/strong> <span>Courtesy of the artist<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Part of the shoot also took place at a ridge that overlooks the Atlantic Ocean \u2014 yes, this is still Mauritania. The band plays at Cap Blanc, which used to be known as the <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/sometimes-interesting.com\/2013\/07\/24\/largest-ship-graveyard-in-the-world-nouadhibou-mauritania\/\">&#8220;largest ship graveyard in the world.&#8221;<\/a> It&#8217;s where owners paid bribes to illegally abandon their old vessels and left them to rot in the Cap Blanc harbor. Tinari says, &#8220;There has been a recent U.N. project to dismantle the decaying ships, and many of them are no longer there.&#8221; Still, one can imagine those ghostly shipping boats shimmering in the waters behind the band.<\/p>\n<p>This Mauritanian sojourn is a perfect fit for Seymali, considering how deeply rooted she is in her home culture. Both she and her husband are Moorish griots; in west Africa, griots are a community&#8217;s storytellers, historians, poets \u2014 and musicians. Seymali comes from a long line of griots, in fact; her stepmother, Dimi Mint Abba, was a famous Mauritanian singer.<\/p>\n<p>Fittingly, then, Seymali calls upon tradition even as she infuses her music with psychedelia; her lyrics, too, intertwine those ideas of heritage and innovation. &#8220;Na Sane&#8221; begins with two traditional lines, followed by a line penned in honor of Chighaly&#8217;s older brother Lamar (also a talented guitarist) by Seymali&#8217;s late father-in-law, the musician Youba El Moctar Chighaly, before concluding with words of her own:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<div>\n<p>You are getting sleepy, go to sleep, go to sleep,<\/p>\n<p>Go to sleep at the house of Dakhman<\/p>\n<p>God, keep Lamar safe, help him to avoid malicious energy.<\/p>\n<p>The music of the band, the <em>azawan<\/em>, is blending well with my song,<\/p>\n<p>Protect us from bad energy, help us preserve the vibe.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><em>Arbina<\/em> comes out Sept. 16 on <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/glitterbeat.bandcamp.com\/album\/arbina\" target=\"_blank\">Glitterbeat Records<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/blockads.fivefilters.org\/\">Let&#8217;s block ads!<\/a><\/strong> <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/fivefilters\/block-ads\/wiki\/There-are-no-acceptable-ads\">(Why?)<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source:: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/2016\/08\/31\/491931659\/songs-we-love-noura-mint-seymali-na-sane?utm_medium=RSS&amp;utm_campaign=world\" class=\"colorbox\" title=\"Songs We Love: Noura Mint Seymali, &#039;Na Sane&#039;\" rel=\"nofollow\">http:\/\/www.npr.org\/2016\/08\/31\/491931659\/songs-we-love-noura-mint-seymali-na-sane?utm_medium=RSS&amp;utm_campaign=world<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"ftpimagefix\" style=\"float:left\"><a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/2016\/08\/31\/491931659\/songs-we-love-noura-mint-seymali-na-sane?utm_medium=RSS&amp;utm_campaign=world\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/media.npr.org\/assets\/img\/2016\/08\/30\/noura-mint-seymali-credit-by-bechir-malum-01_wide-5bc94c543a3ea2e96c3a747c3776b4601bfa5e36-s1100-c15.jpg\" alt=\"\"><\/a><\/div>\n<div>\n<div><button>Enlarge this image<\/button><\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p>Noura Mint Seymali with her bandmates Ousmane Tour\u00e9, Jeiche Ould Chighaly and Matthew Tinari. <strong>Bechir Malum\/Courtesy of the artist<\/strong> <strong>hide caption<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>toggle caption<\/strong> <span>Bechir Malum\/Courtesy of the artist<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>It was just <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/2014\/01\/09\/261067254\/noura-mint-seymali-globalfest-2014\">two years ago<\/a> that Mauritanian vocalist Noura Mint Seymali hit the international scene \u2014 but now, it&#8217;s hard to imagine the scope of African music without her. The singer and her band blow listeners away with giddily woozy and dreamlike vocals; blistering guitar played by her husband, Jeiche Ould Chighaly; and the grounding elements of Ousmane Tour\u00e9&#8217;s bass and Matthew Tinari&#8217;s drums.<\/p>\n<p>Now, Seymali is about to release her second internationally available album, <em>Arbina<\/em>. She&#8217;s kicking things off with a video \u2014 for her song &#8220;Na Sane&#8221; \u2014 that gives audiences abroad a little glimpse of her native land, which is wedged between the Berber and Arab countries of northwestern Africa and the sub-Saharan south. The desert stretches over the vast majority of Mauritania&#8217;s territory and is capped by the Richat Structure, a famous &#8220;bull&#8217;s-eye&#8221; \u2014 also known as the &#8220;Eye of the Sahara&#8221; \u2014 that astronauts can <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/multimedia\/imagegallery\/image_feature_528.html\">see from space<\/a>. Just over 4 million people live in this country that is nearly twice as big as Texas. It&#8217;s a severe and unforgiving landscape, but one that possesses a very particular kind of melancholy beauty.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div>[embedded content]<\/div>\n<div><strong>YouTube<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Director Lo\u00efc Hoquet and producer-drummer Tinari decided to shoot the video for &#8220;Na Sane&#8221; on a road trip through Mauritania. They rented a Toyota Hilux pick-up truck and a black Mercedes taxi and set off on the road that links Mauritania&#8217;s capital city, Nouakchott, with its second-largest city, Nouadhibou (population roughly 118,000), near the border of <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/thesalt\/2012\/12\/12\/167112259\/many-cups-of-tea-the-business-of-sipping-in-western-sahara\">Western Sahara<\/a> territory.<\/p>\n<p>The scenes from the road are intercut with glimpses of a party \u2014 and everyone in the video is a relative or friend of Seymali and Chighaly. As Tinari wrote in an email, &#8220;Essentially, we just threw an impromptu family barbecue. One of the dancers is Noura&#8217;s brother Baba; some of the younger boys are nephews of Jeiche. The girl dancer is a friend from the neighborhood. It was a family affair!&#8221;<\/p>\n<div>\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/media.npr.org\/assets\/img\/2016\/08\/30\/noura-mint-seymali---arbina-3500-_sq-7dc04a6341048f4e79afa53abc2bb257bdf7999e-s800-c15.jpg\" alt=\"\"><\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p>Noura Mint Seymali, <em>Arbina<\/em>. <strong>Courtesy of the artist<\/strong> <strong>hide caption<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>toggle caption<\/strong> <span>Courtesy of the artist<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Part of the shoot also took place at a ridge that overlooks the Atlantic Ocean \u2014 yes, this is still Mauritania. The band plays at Cap Blanc, which used to be known as the <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/sometimes-interesting.com\/2013\/07\/24\/largest-ship-graveyard-in-the-world-nouadhibou-mauritania\/\">&#8220;largest ship graveyard in the world.&#8221;<\/a> It&#8217;s where owners paid bribes to illegally abandon their old vessels and left them to rot in the Cap Blanc harbor. Tinari says, &#8220;There has been a recent U.N. project to dismantle the decaying ships, and many of them are no longer there.&#8221; Still, one can imagine those ghostly shipping boats shimmering in the waters behind the band.<\/p>\n<p>This Mauritanian sojourn is a perfect fit for Seymali, considering how deeply rooted she is in her home culture. Both she and her husband are Moorish griots; in west Africa, griots are a community&#8217;s storytellers, historians, poets \u2014 and musicians. Seymali comes from a long line of griots, in fact; her stepmother, Dimi Mint Abba, was a famous Mauritanian singer.<\/p>\n<p>Fittingly, then, Seymali calls upon tradition even as she infuses her music with psychedelia; her lyrics, too, intertwine those ideas of heritage and innovation. &#8220;Na Sane&#8221; begins with two traditional lines, followed by a line penned in honor of Chighaly&#8217;s older brother Lamar (also a talented guitarist) by Seymali&#8217;s late father-in-law, the musician Youba El Moctar Chighaly, before concluding with words of her own:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<div>\n<p>You are getting sleepy, go to sleep, go to sleep,<\/p>\n<p>Go to sleep at the house of Dakhman<\/p>\n<p>God, keep Lamar safe, help him to avoid malicious energy.<\/p>\n<p>The music of the band, the <em>azawan<\/em>, is blending well with my song,<\/p>\n<p>Protect us from bad energy, help us preserve the vibe.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><em>Arbina<\/em> comes out Sept. 16 on <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/glitterbeat.bandcamp.com\/album\/arbina\" target=\"_blank\">Glitterbeat Records<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/blockads.fivefilters.org\/\">Let&#8217;s block ads!<\/a><\/strong> <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/fivefilters\/block-ads\/wiki\/There-are-no-acceptable-ads\">(Why?)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8114\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}