Véhiculée depuis des temps lointains par les populations du Nord et du Sud du Sahara, la musique berbère ne date pas d'hier. Elle a été transmise de génération en génération. C'est dans les années trente qu'elle a connu un réel essor, alors développée par l'Hajd Belaïd, poète compositeur berbère. Depuis sa disparition, tous ses successeurs ont jusqu'à ce jour suivi son style et son système musical. L'oreille musicale de l'ancienne génération qui ne parvient pas à sortir de ce chemin qualifié de traditionnel, est restée fidèle à cette rythmique répétitive dépourvue d'arrangements musicaux et de développement de la matière son ; ce qui a entrainé une lassitude de la jeune génération actuelle, avide de nouveautés et ouverte sur l'occident. Génération submergée par les musiques européennes et nord américaine. L'un de ces jeunes berbères, Aït, originaire du sud marocain représente tout à fait le mélange des conflits et courants vécus par ces deux générations.
Né en 1966, issu d'une famille de musiciens, il aura une enfance imprégnée de rythmes et de chants. Il sera très vite attiré par la musique occidentale, Rock'n Roll, Blues... et en fera ses premières armes. Il va ainsi participer à des soirées et émissions de radio au Maroc... Il créera des groupes de musique dont Tazarzit et HH Band et suivra une troupe théâtrale et mènera une vie associative en tant que membre de l'Académie cinématographique.
C'est en 1988 que Aït viendra compléter ses connaissances à la Sorbonne dans une classe de chef d'orchestre. Il abordera les musiques planantes et associera les musiques assistées par ordinateur. C'est au sein d'une association pour la promotion des valeurs africaines qu'Aït redécouvre ses racines berbères qu'il défendra sans relâche depuis 1991.
Et c'est après un long cheminement et de longues recherches musicales, que Aït parvient à réaliser ses différents albums pour nous faire découvrir le patrimoine berbère d'une richesse incomparable.
Son dernier album (quatrième en date) intitulé «Berbère» en témoigne. Il y introduit un jeu à la guitare et percussions africaines tout en respectant l'esprit traditionnel de cette musique...
Son objectif avant tout est de faire connaître le berbère et le mêler à des rythmes occidentaux, d'exploiter ce patrimoine qui est certes énorme mais peu connu, émanant d'Afrique, source de toutes les musiques.
From being influenced by Eastern trends in the fifties, Berber music has now been looking for models in Western countries for two decades or more, a change that bears witness, on the one hand of the emergence of a deeply rooted resistance put up to the once Arab invaders and, on the other hand, of the importance of the generation gap in a country where there is a majority of young people. Bombarded as they have been with North American music on the radio jazz, rock'n roll, blues, folk... and with television serials showing a different more attractive way of life, young people have adopted new cultural attitudes.
Thus, in Morocco as well as in Kabylia (Algeria), Berber music, which had been a splendid vehicle for many different centuries old traditions, and formerly a link between the peoples of Northern an Southern Sahara, has in its turn been hit by the same surge: there are now lots of young artists eager to combine Eastern with Western traditions.
AIT from Tarudant, a Berber place in Southern Morocco, is one of these young artists, representative of the long way gone by the young generation, always thirsting for anything new and at the same time so helpless.
AIT was born in 1966 into a family of musicians. Though the family was far from being rich, the child grew up immersed in tunes and rhythms. It did not take long before he began to play the guitar - in fact he would start his musical career as a guitarist -, then turning to rock'n roll and blues. He began to play for people on evening parties, appear in concerts on the radio and T.V. Thereafter he joined a theatrical company and was an active member of a number of associations for the promotion of music. The latter gave him opportunities to give expression to his love for music.
Like many other people used to do then, he left his family and went to France. In 1987 he was there working for a living but also going to a course on lyric singing at the local academy of music.
It was at the time he was attending a course on conducting orchestras, at the Sorbonne, he began to be interested in mystic concerts, music that "sends" you, cumputerized compositions, combining colours with tunes to uplift the soul. As he was exploring that spiritual approach to music, he rediscovered his true roots were in Berber culture. He has been fighting since for this culture in an association for the promotion of African cultural values.
Having gone that long way which has affected both his body and soul, he conceived and carried through the project of a first album: Awal (Words). In soft tunes sounding somewhat like blues where East and West are mingled, he tells us mainly of Man, his sorrows and need to be accepted as he is, but also of his personal longing to go back to and sing of his Berber culture. His songs can be compared to an initiatory quest: from being a lonely wanderer, gone astray among people and mystical concepts, on the verge of madness, he has finally found peace and hope in the very roots of bis own culture: With Words, back to his starting point, he has come full circle.
A. HACHELAF
July 1996
Translated by M. STOFFEL