Final Descent Presents: Asmâa Hamzaoui & Bnat Timbouktou (MA)

Hypnotic Gnawa from Morocco’s Rising Activist Voice

Experience one of Morocco’s most powerful new voices in Gnawa when Asmâa Hamzaoui & Bnat Timbouktou fill Sankt Johannes Kirke on 27 March. Their hypnotic blend of guembri, qraqeb and soaring chants creates a trance-like atmosphere rooted in deep tradition. This is Gnawa as both ritual and renewal, led by the country’s leading female maalma. Expect an evening of spiritual intensity, feminine energy and mesmerizing rhythm.

Asmâa Hamzaoui & Bnat Timbouktou (MA)

Asmâa Hamzaoui stands at the forefront of a new generation transforming Morocco’s rich Gnawa tradition. As the country’s leading female maalma (spiritual master), she and her all- women ensemble Bnat Timbouktou are breaking centuries of male-dominated musical convention with a sound that is at once deeply rooted and boldly forward-looking.

Born into a Casablanca family steeped in Gnawa heritage (her father, Maâlem Rachid Hamzaoui, is a respected master musician) Asmâa learned to play the guembri, a three- stringed lute central to the trance-inducing rhythms of Gnawa, from a young age. Joined by her sister Aïcha on qraqeb (metal castanets) and vocals, the pair channel generations of ancestral knowledge into a hypnotic blend of spiritual chant, rhythmic drive and magnetic stage presence.

Their debut album Oulad Lghaba (Children of the Forest), released on the Swedish label ajabu! in 2019, brought the group international acclaim and a Songlines Music Award nomination. The follow-up, L’bnat (The Daughters), released in May 2024, deepens their exploration of feminine energy and ritual in Gnawa music - a powerful celebration of women’s voices, lineage and resilience within Morocco’s sacred traditions.

Performing across Europe and beyond, from WOMAD UK and Roskilde to BAM Barcelona and the Gnawa & World Music Festival in Essaouira, Asmâa Hamzaoui & Bnat Timbouktou embody a form of cultural preservation through evolution. Their performances are visceral and trance-like, where the hand-carved guembri and cascading qraqeb rhythms converge with Asmâa's commanding voice to summon both healing and joy.

Asmâa's presence on the global stage is both groundbreaking and symbolic: a reminder that even within Morocco’s most spiritual musical forms, transformation can be driven by the power and artistry of women.

https://asmaahamzaouibnattimbouktou.bandcamp.com/album/lbnat

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