Gasba Legacy

Boubakr Maatalla is a multifaceted musician, composer, and musical director blending academic training and self-taught expertise. He began with classical guitar in 1999, studied at the Algiers Conservatoire, and later followed a self-guided musical path. Centering emotion as the core of musical expression, his work explores themes of freedom, identity, and coexistence. In 2013, he released mina el chaab w aila chaab with his group TARBA3T. He has since collaborated with artists of diverse backgrounds and in 2022 became the artistic director of Coke Studio Algeria. His project, Gasba Électrique, fuses electronic music with Medahates, a traditional Algerian female genre, blending guitar, synths, and Gallal rhythms into a trance-like experience. Born from residencies in Paris and Marseille, it honors his roots in Relizane, home to iconic divas like Rimitti, reinterpreting Algeria’s musical heritage for today’s audiences.