NAAMU - TAMAZGHA (2026) [Hi-Res]

The Dutch band Naamu, led by bassist and composer Teun Creemers, is opening a new chapter after its 2023 debut album. The group previously collaborated with West African musicians — Kankou Kouyaté and Harouna Samaké — and now turns to Morocco, recording the album Tamazgha with the Moroccan artist Aziz Ozouss, who is deeply rooted in the Amazigh (Berber) musical culture of the country's south.

It began in early 2025, when Creemers and his bandmates travelled to Biougra in southern Morocco to meet and play with Ozouss. The musical connection was immediate. The aim was not to mechanically combine two styles, but to understand each other's musical worlds and see what would emerge from the exchange. In Morocco, the band members took lessons and played with traditional musicians from Biougra, Agadir and the surrounding region; after returning home, the exchange continued from a distance, as the musicians listened to and studied traditional music, sent each other recordings and inspirations, and gradually wove them into their own language.

Ozouss is a bearer of a living tradition: he knows the Rwaiss and Isemgan styles and plays the ribab and lotar. These traditions did not become an "ethnic accent" laid over jazz — they shaped the compositions, rhythms, melodies and the very approach to making music. The album was recorded at Hiba Studio in Casablanca, produced by Creemers, with compositions by Creemers, Ozouss and guitarist Jelle Roozenburg, and lyrics by Ozouss. It was mixed by Sebastiaan van Bijlevelt and mastered by Alex McCollough. The recording involved a large ensemble: besides the band's core, drummer Tuur Moens and a whole chorus of Moroccan vocalists and percussionists playing the qraqeb (metal castanets), as well as Lassine Kouyaté on the tama (talking drum).

Tamazgha is due out on One World Records on 9 October 2026. Its fourteen tracks lie in the space between contemporary jazz, groove and Amazigh traditions: neither pure jazz nor pure traditional music, but a new cohesive language born of a shared process and the mutual transformation of different musical worlds.

Tracklist:
01-01 NAAMU - Tifrkhin Adagh Inan [4:05]
01-02 NAAMU - Biou-Houara [6:07]
01-03 NAAMU - Lasl Ino [5:33]
01-04 NAAMU - Aywa Yallah [4:28]
01-05 NAAMU - Sallew Aalih [2:18]
01-06 NAAMU - Salato [6:01]
01-07 NAAMU - Toudert [7:22]
01-08 NAAMU - Ganga N Tuur [1:54]
01-09 NAAMU - Ya Hbibi Ya Rasoul [6:16]
01-10 NAAMU - Rjana Fellah [5:49]
01-11 NAAMU - Lmaarof Isemgan [4:28]
01-12 NAAMU - Adinan [4:15]
01-13 NAAMU - Yallah Anmoun [5:11]
01-14 NAAMU - Lotar N Jelle [1:48]