Sequana is the tenth album by Franco-Algerian singer-songwriter Souad Massi. If her music was previously coloured with folk and chaabi, the sound palette broadens here as far as the Sahel, the Caribbean and Brazil. With Justin Adams (Rachid Taha, Tinariwen, Robert Plant) on production, and guests including singer/songwriter Piers Faccini and young Syrian flautist Naïssam Jalal, Souad Massi continues on her path as a committed, liberated woman singing about the causes close to her heart.
The album draws on a diversity of musical styles – folk, country, rock, calypso, bossa, along with sounds of the Middle East and the Algerian desert. At the suggestion of Justin Adams, this rich palette of styles was embraced by Souad, who invited Piers Faccini to join her on Mirage and, for several tracks, Naïssam Jalal on flute, including L’Espoir, a bossa-tinged song sung in French, written with Michel Françoise.