Abdelli: Biography

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• Márta Sebestyén
• Ravi Shankar
• Sir Yehudi Menuhin
• Michalis Nikolocides
• Peter Gabriel
• Hossam Ramzy
• Loreena McKennitt

• Cheb Khaled
• Cheikha Remitti
• Cheb Mami

• Abderrahmane Abdelli

Genres:

Rock Music, World & International Music

Decades Active:

1990's|2000's

The musical traditions of Algeria is fused with modern musical influences by Abdelli. Although descended from the Kabyls, a part of the berber tribe that inhabited Northern Africa as early as 7000 BC, Abdelli has carved his own, improvised, sound with a combination of traditional instruments, including mandola, bender and darbukka, with instruments from throughout the globe.

Abdelli has been attracting attention for more than two decades. Teaching himself to play mandola at the age of seventeen, Abdelli sharpened his skills in his native homeland. Performing at the Algerian Independance Festival on July 5, 1979, he received a prestigious award from Radio Kabyle as "best new amateur singer". Throughout the 1980s, he performed in Denmark, Paris, Germany, Algeria and Brussels, where he recorded with top-ranked Algerian and Moroccan musicians in 1987.

Following the release of his debut album,'New Moon', in 1995, Abdelli performed at the Womad International Festival and recorded with Peter Gabriel, Marta Sebestyen and Loreena McKennit. The following year, he toured Europe and performed, along with Yehudi Menuhin and Ravi Shankar, during a concert in Brussels. In 1997, Abdelli resumed his involvement with the Womad Festival and recorded in Athens with Michalis Nikolocides and Hassam Ramzy. His next recording, Among Brothers, some three years in the making, was released by Real World in 2003.

- Craig Harris, All Music Guide