There is no one thing, one word, one sound to describe Sarazino’s new album, Everyday Salama.  The 15 track project blends dub, reggae, Afro, Latin, hip hop and Arabic music just to name a few.  Each track with a different beat, but the album carries a unifying theme throughout and I accredit this feat to the international development of Sarazino’s music.

Sarazino is a group led and founded by Lamine Fellah.  A son of a diplomat, born in Algeria, who spent his childhood bouncing around from country to country, Fellah learned from his musical surroundings.  Having lived in Spain, Switzerland, Burundi, and Burkina Faso, Fellah took to the diverse sounds at the time including West African beats, Arab-Andalusian music, Spanish flamenco, French hip hop, and reggae exported from Jamaica.

From an early age, Fellah was exposed to a vast array of genres and began to beat his own drum with a trained hand and an open mind for discovering new styles.  As a young adult he moved to Montréal, Canada to study formally but kept his passion for music alive and continued his quest of new genres in the vibrant Montréal scene, and there he started his own musical project, Sarazino.

After spending some time in Montréal and flopping his first album (an album entirely in French, blending African, Algerian, and French influences) Fellah left Canada to carry on exploring the world of music.  He landed in Quito, Ecuador where he has remained since.  Fellah fell in love with Latin music and incorporated the many Latin rhythms into his own music, producing Mundo Babilón in 2003 and Ya Foy! in 2007, and now Everyday Salama.

There are no standout tracks on the album.  With so many featured artists, the album takes on a bit of many styles, but by no means is this a compilation.  His music acts as a sponge that absorbs different sounds and integrates them into his own style of music, which he calls, “Global Reggae.”

The final product is an upbeat, reggae-riddim-heavy album that you can’t help but dance to.  The music comes with a smile and a bobbing head as you walk down a busy street.  It provides a constant soundtrack to a scene of strangers dancing, friends laughing, and enemies agreeing.  The music is truly made with a sense of pride and love for it’s surroundings.  It is music that has global appeal, appealing to groups of people all over the world.  Probably because that’s where the music comes from.

“The goal of this album is to get the most collaborations possible from different countries and musical backgrounds,” says Fellah.  With a greater platform of musicians, the reach of the music, and more importantly the message, will travel greater distances.  Messages of acceptance, tolerance, peace and unity are international and Sarazino believes music is the best way to spread these ideals.

Everyday Salama is an album that won’t land Sarazino on the top of the charts, but if more people, in more countries around the world are exposed to it, then Sarazino will consider this album a great success.

Sarazino will be spreading his “outernational” music this summer on tour in North America.  Read more about Sarazino, listen to previous albums and check on tour dates on Cumbancha’s website.

Please sit back, relax and enjoy the grooves of Sarazino on Everyday Salama.

You can purchase the album at the Cumbancha official store, on iTunes or Amazon.

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