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Western Saharan musician / activist Aziza Brahim's new album 'Abbar el Hamada' ('Across the Hamada'), is a commanding and compassionate musical statement about, and for, the tumultuous age in which we live. Raised in a Saharawi refugee camp in the Algerian desert, and living in exile for more than two decades (first in Cuba and currently in Barcelona), Brahim's life and music embodies both the tragedies and hopes of the present-day migrant and refugee experience. As walls and borders are again being raised though-out Europe and other corners of the world, Aziza Brahim's passionately sung poetic defiance, is especially timely and profound.

On 'Abbar el Hamada', Aziza has consciously extended her reach deeper into the sounds of contemporary West Africa. This move has been reinforced by the introduction of Senegalese percussionist Sengane Ngom and drummer Aleix Tobias into her band, and the return of Malian guitarist Kalilou Sangare. Bassist / arranger Guillem Aguilar and guitarist Ignasi Cussa, also return from her previous band. Recorded in Barcelona in the summer of 2015 with producer Chris Eckman (Bassekou Kouyate, Tamikrest), 'Abbar el Hamada', is a wholly persuasive example of Brahim's pan-musical vision and is her most compelling and varied album to date.

From the pulsing desert rock of Calles De Dajla, to the Afro-Cuban inflections of La Cordillera Negra (evoking 70's recordings by the Super Rail Band) through the dusky elegance of El Canto Del La Arena and the raw balladry of Mani (featuring Malian blues-master Samba Toure on guitar), the music and lyrics on 'Abbar el Hamada' masterfully reflect the restless, imaginative search for home, explicit in the album's title. Hamada is the word used by the Saharawi people to describe the rocky desert landscape along the Algerian / Western Saharan frontier where tens of thousands of their people are stranded in purgatorial refugee camps.