The ’4000 Year Old Rock ’n’ Roll Band’

*In a remote village in the Ahl Srif tribal area of Northern Morocco, dwell a collective of Sufi musicians. They play a form of trance music which is used for healing. Timothy Leary called them The 4,000-year-old Rock’N’Roll band - rather superficial hyperbole perhaps - though it is true that what The Master Musicians of Joujouka play is thousands of years old - and shares something in common with the wildest and most inspired of rock music. Record producer, film-maker and Beat historian Frank Rynne, who co-organises their annual festival, came to the Bureau to tell the strange and wonderful story of the musicians of Joujouka, their culture and their interaction with the counterculture of the 50s and 60s We hear about Tangier at the time - and the life there of Beat artists Bryon Gysin and William Burroughs with digressions into the dark side of bohemia - along with the story of doomed Rolling Stone Brian Jones who came to record the Master Musicians shortly before his death. For more on the Master Musicians of JojoukaGet our Counterculture newsletterThe Bureau of Lost Culture Home

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Bureau of Lost Culture

*The Bureau of Lost Culture broadcast curious, half-forgotten, countercultural stories, oral testimonies and rare tales from the underground.

*Join host Stephen Coates and a wide range of guests including musicians, artists, writers, activists and commentators in conversation.

*Listen live on Saturdays at 9.00am on London’s premier independent station Soho Radio or via all major podcast providers:

*The Bureau is now collected at The British Library Sound Archive

• No. of episodes: 114
• Latest episode: 2024-06-09
• Society & Culture History

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