'The Gnawa Berber' is the sophomore album by Simo Lagnawi, a Moroccan Berber based in London. Lagnawi plays the guembri (a three-string Moroccan bass lute) and has dedicated himself to the gnawa genre. Gnawa music consists of a rich repertoire of old African-Islamic songs and rhythms, in which both ritual poetry and traditional music and dance have a place. The term "gnawa" is probably a corruption of the Hausa word "kanawa", used to refer to nationals of the Hausa Kingdom Kano, a close ally of Morocco located in what is now northern Nigeria. Typical of gnawa music is the instrumentation, which, in addition to the previously mentioned guembri, consists of krakebs (heavy metals castanets) and sometimes also large drums called tabl in Arabic. On 'The Gnawa Berber' Lagnawi adds flute (Freya Rae), violin (Griselda Sanderson) and banjo (Louis Bingham), giving the whole gnawa-tradition a refreshing update.