Takfarinas

When the album Yal was released at the turn of the 2000s, Takfarinas had already been singing for twenty years. He sang for the workers of Saint-Denis, the communities of Athens and Johannesburg. With the mandola between his hands, a modified two-neck guitar where one carries the basses and the other the trebles¹. “Tak”, as his fans call him, has never ceased to widen the circle of his Kabyle music to make it a bridge between continents.

In brief

Key dates

From Tixeraïne to Paris: building a style

Hacène Zermani was born on February 25, 1958 in the Kabyle quarter of Tixeraïne, in Algiers². His family already counts four generations of musicians. Very young, the child built his first guitar with an oil cylinder and a brake cable. At seven years old, he was already singing.

The waves brought him the taste for other sounds: Stevie Wonder, Edith Piaf, Cheikh El Hasnaoui³. Little Hacène absorbed this mix which would become the seed of Yal — a word he invented later to name his expanded Kabyle music. The term covers several meanings in Kabyle: musical interjection, prefix for each, root of yella (to exist) and ayla (property).

In 1979, facing political repression in Algeria, he emigrated to Paris¹. He made the metro his first studio, working on his voice in underground corridors and hotel cellars. Barbès, a quarter of the Maghrebi community in Paris, became his stage ground. He distributed his recorded cassettes and the public followed him everywhere.

Revelation: the mandola and stadiums

In 1981, Takfarinas formed the group Agraw. The two albums published with this collective forged his experience. The group split in 1984 and the artist took his destiny into his own hands.

The year 1986 marked a decisive turning point⁴. Under the direction of arranger Jean Claudric, he published the double album Way telha and Arrac. Millions of copies sold in North Africa, stadiums opened their doors to him and Europe followed. For the first time in the North African artistic world, he proposed large-scale public shows with an unprecedented production.

In 1988, he transformed his mandola⁵. He entrusted the instrument to luthier Rachid Chaffaa who added a second neck — one carries the basses, the other the high sounds. In 1998, luthier Madjid Lah’lou would bring the whole thing to an electroacoustic version.

Consecration

In 1990, Takfarinas took the stage at the Olympia. In 1993, with Hamid Belhocine (Kassav’ trombonist), he published Romane and officially entered the world music circuit. In 1999, he released Yal, the most accomplished album¹. The hit Zaâma Zaâma became a world music standard. In 2004, Honneur aux dames, bilingual double album, invited Sly Dunbar and Norbert Krief. In 2011, Lwaldine / Inchallah marked thirty years of career. In 2021, Ul-iw ttayri / Yemma lezzayer-iw confirmed his vitality.

“I sing exile, I reach a wide audience, because music is the language that speaks to the heart.”

Major works

Legacy

Takfarinas made the Kabyle mandola a universal instrument⁵. From Tixeraïne to Johannesburg, he showed that a Berber language could speak to the heart of the world.

Sources and references