“We allow ourselves to create this dream space where we fantasise about the future. That is because our respective countries are witnessing very strong changes, politically, economically, geo-politically. In those places we feel a sense of responsibility to be proactive toward a future. The present we don’t like at all and we have to fucking change it.”
In talking about the process behind his solo-with-collaborators project AMMAR 808, Sofyann ben Youssef gives a succinct manifesto for a Maghrebi futurist movement, and the philosophy that permeates his music regardless of its musical direction. Whether he’s behind the synth, behind the mixing desk or behind the scenes, there is no doubt that Sofyann is changing the future of Tunisian music.
Tunis-born and Brussels-based, Sofyann has been crucial to three of the most banging projects to explode out of North Africa in the past five years: Nigerien Tuareg rockers Kel Assouf, Tunisian mountain musicians Bargou 08 and the aforementioned AMMAR 808. His masterful synth wrangling, drum programming and holistic production wizardry have instilled these projects with a heart-pounding energy and a deliciously dark undercurrent while taking nothing at all away from the traditions at play. When Sofyann is involved, multiple musical worlds come together with mutual enrichment.
In his time, Sofyann has studied everything from Western, Arabic and Hindustani classical music to jazz, metal and all manner of electronica. It’s all beloved to him and it’s all there in his work, and it’s as AMMAR 808 that he allows his musical philosophies and practices to be most easily heard – and seen. The first album under that name, 2018’s Maghreb United, saw him joined by musicians from Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria, all bringing their own influences to play among Sofyann’s ever-sympathetic production to create a style that he calls ‘Maghreb bass.’
His way of working is at once that of a mechanic and that of an artist. He spends a long time learning about every musical element involved, and breaks them down into their most basic constituent parts before building them up into a different form. Where so many ‘world fusion’ projects collide different cultures together to mixed success, Sofyann brings them together from the same foundations into one, new culture. And once that material is prepared, he becomes the sculptor. “Once the song is recorded, the most exciting part kicks in, which is placing new elements on the rhythm, and that’s going to change everything. It’s a superfast process. Sometimes it takes ten minutes to make a song, sometimes I do it while listening to it and that’s it. And that’s super intense. You get all sweaty and you’re scared to lose that momentum. That’s the most intense part, and the rest is just fine tuning.”
The end result is a hypnotic soundscape that stretches from the dusty ground to outer space. Science fiction is an important cultural touchstone for Sofyann, so it’s not too surprising that his outlook – musically and politically – tends towards the intergalactic and the cinematic. His solo project AMMAR 808 is as much for the eyes as it is the ears.
The all-encompassing fusion of musical styles, emotions and worldwide traditions is making waves back in North Africa, as well as in the European/North American ‘world music’ scene. With his musical projects, Sofyann is challenging and changing the way that Maghrebis discuss and imagine music: “I get super positive reactions there, but to process the information, people always feel obliged to make some sort of comparison to western bands. ‘Yo, this is like the Chemical Brothers of Tunisia!’ things like that. It’s kind of interesting really. There is a missing vocabulary to grasp the project.” In this way, his work is changing not just Maghrebi music itself, but also fertilising the ground upon which it grows, opening up new possibilities and directions for potential exploration while still empowering the roots and traditions from which the rest are built. That development is also taking place thanks to Sofyann’s activities in Tunisia’s home-grown music industry.
Mass upheaval has affected every level of Maghrebi society over the past decade, and the musical ecosystem reflects this, but Sofyann sees this as an opportunity for optimism: “To be honest the music scene in Tunisia is not too structured and not too organised, but that makes a lot of things possible to happen. In Europe, for instance, things are super-organised on that level, but we have the chance to rethink the whole system. So I hope that at least in the Maghreb and the region that I know that changes like that can happen.” Naturally, he’s leading the charge.
In 2013, he co-founded the first Tunisian music export office, Tumex. That came a little early; the scene wasn’t quite ready to export to an international audience, and political instability meant that funding streams eventually dried up. Tumex closed after three years, but it started to lay the groundwork and began to get Tunisia’s local scene noticed on the international market. It’s only been a few years, but a lot has changed since then, and Sofyann is once again making moves to evolve the landscape. This year, he launches Goul Music, a record label “based in Tunisia, from Tunisia, and with Tunisian dinar.” With Goul Music, the aim is to showcase the music of now, introducing the lesser-known sounds of Tunisia to the rest of the country itself, as well as the rest of the world. The label launches with a series of field recordings of contemporary folkloric music, and will move onward to younger traditions, with the view to change opinions of Tunisian music: “the catalogue will be more about stimulating young people into new ways of seeing music and themselves.” And here again we see Sofyann’s holistic approach: great music on its own can touch a person, but its impact is all the more powerful when contextualised in an effective way – as such, the Goul releases will be comprehensive and multimedia, featuring interviews and documentary footage to allow a depth of understanding that has so far been lacking in relationship to this music.
I hope that it is not too obvious to say that he is a busy man. Busy is never in his plans, but it seems to creep up on him nevertheless. “The thing that can fail sometimes is time. I don’t want to do much, but I want to do good. But I always end up doing much as well!” And looking at his schedule for the coming few years, he is definitely doing much. As well as the forthcoming releases on Goul Music, the latest album by Kel Assouf, Black Tenere, came out just last month, and the second AMMAR 808 album is very much in the works – he hints at a South Asian focus this time around. And that’s not to mention the five or so other albums that he will be producing or guesting on over the course of 2019. It seems his work is only just beginning.
With everything that he does, it is clear that Sofyann ben Youssef is working towards the future of Maghrebi music and, with that, society at large. “We have all sorts of events happening in Tunisia, on a political level, on an economic level, it’s not easy. But it’s hopeful. And I think that has an impact on music. It has a positive impact in a way that people are trying to reinvent themselves. It’s always like that after big changes, you see different possibilities.”
Photo: AMMAR 808, by Sia Rosenberg; Sofyann ben Youssef, by Stine Sampers.