Master Musicians of Jajouka's Apocalypse Across The Sky finally gets vinyl release

The Bill Laswell-produced Apocalypse Across The Sky album by Bachir Attar's MMJ crew from 1992 has just been issued on vinyl by the Berlin's Zehra label. 

Here's the scoop from the Zehra label:

Available on vinyl for the very first time: the 1992 album Apocalypse Across The Sky by the legendary MASTER MUSICIANS OF JAJOUKA led by Bachir Attar. Originally produced by Bill Laswell and remastered for vinyl by Helmut Erler at D&M Berlin.

No matter if you consider the MASTER MUSICIANS OF JAJOUKA a "4,000 year-old rock‘n‘roll band" (William S. Burroughs) or even "6,000 years old" (Ornette Coleman) – without doubt, the music of the ensemble in all its incarnations over the centuries is deeply rooted in Sufi mysticism, paganism and the cult of the goat-god Boujeloud. According to a myth, many centuries ago Boujeloud appeared to a shepherd called Attar, an ancestor of today‘s ensemble leader Bachir Attar, and till today every year at the end of Ramadan a fire in honour of the goat-god is ignited. This pagan root aside, the music performed in several hour long rituals on traditional instruments like tebel and tariyya (drums), ghaita (a woodwind instrument), lira (flute) and gimbri (stringed instrument) reveals hypnotic, trance-inducing qualities and is considered to have magical and healing properties.

In the 1950s, Brion Gysin along with Paul Bowles were among the first westerners to witness such a ceremony, and it was Gysin who invited the MASTER MUSICINS OF JAJOUKA to play in his restaurant in Tanger, and who later (in 1967) brought Brian Jones to the small village of Jajouka where the Rolling Stones guitarist recorded the ensemble for what came to be known as the first "world music album" and that raised interest in the MASTER MUSICIANS OF JAJOUKA in the western world.

In 1991, iconic producer Bill Laswell embarked on a trip to the small village of just 800 inhabitants in the Rif mountains to record the group for his Axiom label. The resulting Apocalypse Across The Sky album is, unlike other Laswell projects – which typically bring together different cultures and genres – a pure document of the ensemble, raw and unpolished but exquisitely recorded.

Apocalypse Across The Sky is now available on vinyl for the very first time from the Berlin-based Zehra label who also reissued The Trance of The Seven Colours, the Bill Laswell-produced collaboration between Pharoah Sanders and Maleem Mahmoud Ghania. Listen to the track "El Medahey" followed by the credits for Apocalypse Across The Sky.




Musicians: 
Bachir Attar (Leader) - Ghaita, Gimbri, Lira, Vocals
Mohamed Bacari - Ghaita, Gimbri, Lira, Vocals
Ali Nachat - Ghaita, Gimbri, Lira, Vocals
Larbi Lalli Attar - Ghaita, Lira, Tarija, Vocals
Mohammed El Hammadi – Ghaita, Gimbri, Tebel, Vocals
Ali Mojdoubl - Ghaita, Liria, Tarija, Vocals
Tahir Bokzar - Ghaita, Violin, Lira, Vocals
Abdellah Sandaoui Attar - Ghaita, Lira, Tarija, Vocals
Abdellah Attar - Ghaita, Tebel, Vocals
Lahesen Brital - Violin, Tarija, Vocals
Abdeslam Bokzar - Tarija, Vocals
Abdellah Shirioui - Tarija, Vocals
Mokhtar Jaghdal - Tebel, Vocals
Mostapha Attar - Tebel, Vocals
Abmed EI Himdi - Tebel, Vocals
Abdellah Bokzar - Tebel, Vocals

Women's group: 
Rahama Attar - Bendir, Vocals
Menana Attar - Tarija, Vocals
Rahama Attar - Tarija, vocals
Hadoush Attar - Tarija, Vocals
Rahama Attar - Tarija, Vocals
Yamna Attar - Tarija, Vocals

Recorded with producer Bill Laswell at Jajouka in the foothills of the Rif Mountains of
Morocco on November 8, 9 and 10, 1991.
Coordination and production assistance in Morocco: Nicky Skopelitis.
Assistance in Tangier and Jajouka: Cheerie Nutting.
Engineered by Oz Fritz
Assistant engineer: Carl Glanville
Mixed at The Hit Factory, New York