Alison Stewart: You're listening to All Of It on WNYC. I'm Alison Stewart. Imal Gnawa is a local band led by Atlas Phoenix. They blend traditional Moroccan Gnawa music with modern technology and futurist ideas. They released their debut EP in January. We were thrilled they were able to join us for our April Get Lit with All Of It book club event with author Laila Lalami, who requested a contemporary Moroccan artist for the evening. You'll hear some of my conversation with the band's frontman, Atlas Phoenix, in a minute, but first, here's a live performance from Imal Gnawa.

Atlas Phoenix: Thank you, guys. We're going to share with you some Gnawa vibes. Gnawa is basically like ancient psychiatry before the modern psychiatry. People would gather up and they play these trance rhythms, but the way we do it is we're adding sci-fi elements, including the synthesizers. That's going to be led by Andrew Fox. Please give it up to Andrew.

[applause]

Atlas Phoenix: Drum machine, that's Eilon Elikam.

[applause]

Atlas Phoenix: We're doing the traditional part. Mustafa on Karkaba and vocals.

[applause]

Atlas Phoenix: Me on Gimbri. Gimbri is this great-grandmother of bass. I'll let you guys listen to it. We're going to perform Mimouna. We're going to perform two songs. The first one is Mimouna. In Morocco, this tradition is shared by many communities, including Jewish community. Mimouna is a Moroccan Jewish female saint and also a Jewish holiday.

[music-Imal Gnawa: Mimouna]

Atlas Phoenix: Thank you.

[applause]

Alison Stewart: Atlas, can I ask you a couple of questions before we hear your next song?

Atlas Phoenix: Sure, Yes.

Alison Stewart: First of all, what is the name-- You said it's the grandfather of the bass. What is that called again?

Atlas Phoenix: Maybe grandmother.

Alison Stewart: Grandmother, grandparent. What's it called again?

Atlas Phoenix: Gimbri. Yes, but you can also call it hejhouj sintir. It's where bass guitar evolved from. It migrated from sub-Saharan Africa to Morocco, and it evolved in Morocco.

Alison Stewart: Before you sent over some of the music you were going to play for us tonight, you described it as having colors. One piece was blue, another was black, another was green. First of all, what did we just hear? Blue, black, green.

Atlas Phoenix: This is blue.

Alison Stewart: This is blue. What does blue mean?

Atlas Phoenix: Actually, this is black.

Alison Stewart: This is black. Okay. What does black mean?

Atlas Phoenix: Gnawa music goes by spirits and colors. Goes by colors, and each color is a collection of songs. Those songs, they represent ancient spirits. Maybe they were gods and goddesses back in the day. Because this is 1,000 year tradition. It was passed down orally, but they evolved. Mimouna, for example, is an evolution itself of this spirit. These spirits-- Each color represents a bunch of spirits. It's like a courtyard, people, they think they're possessed. That's how they interpreted their illnesses. Gnawa is there to basically-- Like a judge. Basically like mediating between the-- Through trends, of course, between the dancer and spirits, basically.

Alison Stewart: You have this beautiful traditional music, and then the guys back there on the electronics. How do you think about balancing the tradition and the technology? Because that's what a lot of what the book was about.

Atlas Phoenix: I think everything is connected and it's just about like what fits. We studied it and we met and then we made this and we produced the first album and we have two more but different experiences because the first one was just like solo with synthesizers, but the second one was with a group of vocalists and the third one, we did it with a visitor, Malem, he was visiting and we made that album. We're going to release it soon, hopefully.

Alison Stewart: What are your plans for the future of the band?

Atlas Phoenix: Just to play music and enjoy music. Enjoy music and experiment with it and we heal ourselves first, and then anybody that vibrates with this vibe, can also get the benefit.

Alison Stewart: What's the next song we're going to hear?

Atlas Phoenix: This one is we're going to switch back to Muslim marabouts and we have a song called Gilali Bouala. Gilali or Giuliani is known in Arabic literature as Giuliani. He's like not Al Halaj, but he's similar to Halaj is this bohemian spiritual marabout migrated from modern day Iraq, Baghdad to North Africa and established a Muslim Sufi sect, if you want. That's it. Moroccans, they sing songs about him, including Gnawa. That's what we're going to hear right now.

Alison Stewart: Here's Ima Gnawa.

Atlas Phoenix: Thank you.

[music-Imal Gnawa: Gilali Bouala]

[applause]

Atlas Phoenix: Thank you, guys. [applause] Thank you.

Alison Stewart: That was a live performance from the band Imal Gnawa from our April Get Lit with All Of It book club event. That is All Of It for today. I appreciate you listening, and I appreciate you have a great weekend, and I'll meet you back here on Monday.