Birth of a Star
Abdou El Omari was born in 1945 in Tafraout, south of Agadir — a village suspended between the pink granite peaks of the Anti-Atlas and the waves of the Atlantic. A landscape already musical in itself. He grew up in the dry mountain light, surrounded by the rhythms of nature and Berber’s culture.
Very little is known about the man — a veil of mystery still surrounds his life, only deepening the fascination. His name remains discreet, but his music continues to travel. It seems to drift from another time, another world, or perhaps from a dream shared between the blue nights of Casablanca and the silent dunes of the Sahara.
In the 1970s, as Morocco was transforming, Abdou El Omari shaped a sound of his own — a visionary blend of spiritual jazz, psychedelic funk, Moroccan traditions, and early electronic experimentation. Today, his work is resurfacing, rediscovered by a new generation of listeners in search of lost horizons. This record stands among its rarest and most precious fragments.
An Initiatory Journey
At ten, El Omari left the mountains of the south for the vast port of Casablanca — a city in motion, crossroads of Arab-Berber, African, European, and American cultures. Music was everywhere: on the radio, in cafés, in jazz clubs run by Moroccan Jews and expatriates, and in the crates filled by passing American soldiers.
His path was anything but ordinary. While his brother ran a record store, Abdou chose another way — first as a butcher, then a servant for a French family. They helped him train as a hairdresser and later supported his admission to the Casablanca Conservatory in 1960.
For seven years, he studied there, became a luthier, met musicians, and discovered the instrument that would define his sound: the Farfisa organ — symbol of the psychedelic and modern era’s music, from Pink Floyd to Terry Riley.
At the same time, after becoming a hairdresser, he opened his own women’s hairdressing school in Casablanca in the 1970s, before founding a second one in Safi. His school was the only one in the country officially recognized by the state, a proof of his professionalism and dedication to passing on his craft. However, despite his undeniable talent he was never a full-time musician.
A Music from Elsewhere
At twenty-two, he founded his first group, Les Fugitifs, which gained him local fame. Soon after, he released 7 inches records and cassettes on labels such as Cléopâtre, Hassania, Boussiphone, Hilali, and his own, Al Awtar, while performing on RTM (national radio and television). He also composed for artists like Naima Samih, Laila Ghofran, and Aicha El Waad.
In 1976, through the label Gam, he released his only vinyl album, Nuits d’été — a record that would become cult decades later, reissued in 2017 by Radio Martiko.
To the local press, he explained simply: “I try to give Moroccan song a modern aspect.”
In a landscape still ruled by large orchestras, El Omari built a new bridge between tradition and modernity. Influenced by Coltrane’s jazz, Sun Ra’s cosmic flights, and the pulse of gnawa and chaâbi music, he created a shimmering sound that played with styles like light on water — airy jazz, humid funk, Moroccan trance shaped by groove and echo. His Farfisa floats above it all, like a spacecraft gliding over the Atlas Mountains.
The Golden Age and the Silence
In the 1980s, his music grew quieter, more secret. He tried to recover his old tapes from the studios he had recorded in, but gradually withdrew from the scene and returned to hairdressing. A pioneer of musical fusion, he opened paths that would remain unexplored for years. He passed away in 2010, never witnessing the rediscovery of his music by diggers, bloggers, and collectors online — on Discogs, Blogspot, and YouTube. A modest life, yet a lasting resonance.
The Rediscovered Tape
The story could have ended there. But one day, his close friend and poet Aziz Essamadi, rescued a cardboard box from the trash — a box containing Abdou El Omari’s personal archives. It was later entrusted to Casablanca based collector Ahmed Khalil, founder of the label Dikraphone, who - after long efforts - managed to convinced him of his sincerity.
Inside were treasures preserved by chance: demos, rehearsals, private recordings, unseen photographs — and a stunning, almost forgotten cassette. Here, El Omari sounds bolder than ever, exploring territories where pop, cosmic disco, electric blues, and Moroccan tradition merge without boundaries.
Armed with his ARP Odyssey synthesizer, hypnotic grooves, and the celestial layers of his Farfisa, he expanded the dialogue between deep roots and electronic exploration. The funk drums patterns and the Moroccan ternary 6/8 rhythms intertwine in a unique psychedelic trance — a music that seems to emerge from a parallel Morocco, half dream, half memory.
The Dream Continues
This album is the continuation of a vision — a music of the Moroccan future: rooted, but reaching for the unknown. Colorful, magnetic and timeless, here is music for dancing as much as for dreaming. If Nuits d’été was the dawn, this rediscovered work is the culmination — an invitation to journey through the singular universe of Abdou El Omari.
