Mauritanian griot Noura Mint Seymali has a voice that can stop you in your tracks. Her voice is impossibly powerful, schokingly strong, the kind of voice that you’ll find hard to believe isn’t fueled by some divine power. She’s a master vocalist, heir to the traditions of Mauritania, but also heir to a legacy of modernization as well. Her father, Seymali Ould Ahmed Vall, was a scholar and an artist responsible for bringing Mauritanian traditional music into a Western context through his development of a notation system and his work on the Mauritanian national anthem. Seymali’s step-mother, Dimi Mint Abba, was one of Mauritania’s most popular musicians. It would seem impossible for Noura Mint Seymali not to follow her family into a musical career and not to want to innovate with the tradition herself. This she does on her new album, Tzsenni. She takes the sounds of the beautiful traditional lute, the ardine, and amplifies the instrument, buzzing out the sound in a very African way to create something larger. Her husband, Jeiche Ould Chighaly plays the tidinit, or guitar, in a similarly amplified manner. In some ways, the music of Noura Mint Seymali touches on the “desert blues” of Tuareg musicians like Tinariwen. You’ll find the same swirling, tranced-out melody lines and driving electric bass beats, but Seymali’s music seems closer at times to the world of Moorish traditions, possibly even close to Andalucian roots. Mauritania has always been part of the bridge between North African Arab traditions and sub-Saharan African roots.

The lyrics of Seymali’s songs reference classics of the repertoire (including a lovely song written by her father and a song from her step-mother), but focus as well on her own history and her work contextualizing the old traditions in today’s world, the key work of any griot. The song “El Mougelen” references a Mauritanian dish traditionally made by women, and Seymali uses the song to address women directly: “My thoughts are on the women of today. God bestows blessings and takes them away.” The music of Noura Mint Seymali’s new album is a cry of power, a chance to take a stand for tradition, but also for the meaning tradition can have today. Seymali has an uncanny knack for creating entirely new music that feels infused with old ideals. She’s got a great vision, and the intense, searing power of her vocals is burning that vision into the minds of her audiences as she tours around the world.