The French reissue label WeWantSounds continues its series on Algerian music — this time with the long out-of-print and now highly sought-after 1975 album Ken Andy Habib. However, Algerian saxophonist Freh Khodja would hardly have sounded the way he does here without the decisive influence of Paris as a cultural melting pot shaping the album’s sonic identity.
After arriving in France in 1968 at the age of 19 to continue his musical training at the École Normale de Musique, Khodja teamed up in the mid-1970s with the band Les Flammes — a collective of musicians from diverse corners of the African diaspora. Particularly notable is the imprint of Coladeira, a Cape Verdean style that leaves an audible mark on this layered amalgam. Here, Arabic music intersects with Caribbean grooves and the jazz-funk aesthetics of the 1970s.
While energetic tracks like »Hawa« drive the album forward, »Kalbou Ahzine« adds a touch of melancholy with a hint of chanson-inspired pathos. Sun-soaked psychedelia shimmers through as well — most vividly in the swirling »Ani Jit El Youm«. Ken Andy Habib thrives across contexts: equally effective on the dance floor and in a more relaxed, reflective listening mode. A multifaceted work that both embraces and redefines the diversity of the 1970s Parisian music scene.
Ken Andi Habib
