Nour Eddine: Morocco; Traditional Songs and Music (Arc)

The propulsive, rhythmic music of the Gnawa in North Africa has been surreptitiously infiltrating Western ears through the likes of Bill Laswell and his world music meltdowns with jazz and de facto "rock" musicians on the Axiom label.

Here the oud, guitar and percussion player Nour Eddine -- with some young musicians from the Maghreb -- offers music from rituals designed to cleanse a person of bad spirits.

But while this may be spiritual music it is the rolling rhythm, Nour Eddine's gently yearning vocals and that loose and soft sound of the oud which really works the magic.

Quite transporting, especially the instrumental passages.