The ‘4000 Year Old Rock Band’ Soho Radio special on the Master Musicians of Joujouka

Master Musicians of Joujouka producer Frank Rynne interviewed for Bureau of Lost Culture broadcast.

The Master Musicians of Joujouka were the subject of a 50-minute special for Soho Radio.

A profile of the group with introduction to their history and music was broadcast for the latest edition of the Bureau of Lost Culture – spotlighting “curious, half-forgotten, half-remembered countercultural stories, oral histories and tales from the underground”.

Host Stephen Coates interviewed Master Musicians of Joujouka producer Frank Rynne for an in-depth exploration of “the story of the Master Musicians of Joujouka, Sufi musicians playing extraordinary trance music in a remote area of Morocco and their interaction with the counterculture, William Burroughs and Brian Jones.”

The show was broadcast on 10^th June following the recent Joujouka 23 festival held in the village last week.

Listen back to the show at: https://www.mixcloud.com/sohoradio/bureau-of-lost-culture-10062023/

A statement on the broadcast said: “In a remote village in the Ahl Srif tribal area of Northern Morocco, dwell a collective of Sufi musicians.

“They play a form of trance music which is used for healing. Timothy Leary called them The 4,000-year-old Rock’N’Roll band – hyperbole of course though it is true that the music The Master Musicians of Joujouka play is thousands of years old.

“Ahead of their performances in London (The Forge, 20^th and 21^st June) and at the Glastonbury Festival. Record producer, film-maker and beat historian Frank Rynne, who co-organises their annual festival, came to the Bureau to tell the strange and wonderful story of Joujouka, their culture and their interaction with the counterculture of the 50s and 60s

“And we hear about Tangier and the life there of Beat artists Brion Gysin and William Burroughs – and of the story of Brian Jones who recorded the Master Musicians shortly before his death.”

Bureau of Lost Culture podcast link