Mezar

Mezar is a Franco-Algerian band that plays what it calls bedouin psych blues: hypnotic, built on trance and analog textures. The project was founded by Algerian composer, vocalist and guitarist Chakib Kouidri. The sound sits, in the group’s own words, somewhere between Ali Farka Touré’s desert and Elias Rahbani’s Levant.

Between desert blues and Levantine colour

The core of the music is desert-blues guitar, analog keyboards and rhythms drawn from Sub-Saharan trance traditions. On stage the line-up uses cigar box, synths, voice, bass and drums, and the press describes the result as hypnotic and groove-driven, with tight, locked-in drums and a prominent bass line. The Sohan EP (2024) tells the story of a Tuareg who dreams of becoming an astronaut. It was presented at the MaMA Convention, named a finalist for the Prix des Musiques d’Ici, and made with support from the Canada Council for the Arts.

For sync and licensing

This is music that works through repetition and atmosphere rather than through verse-chorus hooks. Looping guitar lines, analog synth pads and a steady, trance-like pulse would suit images that need tension, space or a sense of journey: road and desert landscapes, night scenes, documentary, drama or a slow build-up in a thriller. The analog warmth gives it texture without sounding dated. The live-session recordings, filmed and recorded in studio conditions, show a band that plays tightly together, which matters for cues that need to hold a mood over time.

Texts and recent work

The texts are described as diwan-inspired. One track, “Four Revelations”, draws on a diwan poem sung for generations in the Taguerabt region of south-western Algeria, which recounts creation and the four scriptures given to humanity. In 2026 the band released Under the Red Moon, a live session recorded in Toulouse and put out track by track, each release timed to a full moon. A residency at the Centre National de Création Musicale Voce in Corsica (early 2026), supported by the European Rawabet programme, fed new compositions. These are the ones played on stage ahead of the recording of Nafs, an album announced but not yet released.