Racines shares debut LP ‘Arilos Mennar’

Racines is a project formed in 2022 by Rokeya and Anissa, the duo who bring together backgrounds that flow across countries, cultures and musical traditions, creating a sound unlike any other. The name itself translates as “roots,” an apt description for a project that continuously explores ancestry, identity and the ways traditions can be carried forward into new forms.

The partnership is shaped by the distinct experiences of its two members; born in London with Indian, Italian and Welsh heritage, Rokeya moves between the roles of producer, performer, selector and curator while Anissa, whose heritage spans Italy and Algeria, arrives from a complementary perspective as a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist with a strong connection to traditional musical forms. Individually, their creative worlds orbit different sonic languages but together, those differences become the pillars of something entirely their own.

Racines exists at the point where ancestral memory collides with cutting edge electronic music, offering music informed by what they describe as lands facing south, drawing inspiration from an interconnected cultural landscape that stretches across borders and histories. Now, that philosophy reaches its fullest expression on their debut album titled Arilos Mennar, released through Locomotiv Records.

The record is wrapped in symbolism from its very title. Arilos refers to the seeds of the pomegranate, a fruit associated throughout the Mediterranean with rebirth, life, death and union. Mennar, derived from Algerian Arabic, means “from fire,” invoking a primal and generative feminine energy, two ideas which establish the album’s central vision of seeds drawn from the earth and ignited through transformation.

Across nine chapters, Arilos Mennar plays out as a sonic story where personal histories and collective memories overlap and intertwine. The album moves through pulsating rhythms, stacked textures and multiple languages, creating a soundscape that belongs everywhere and nowhere all at once. Modern electronics melt into traditional influences, producing a journey that reaches into the past while striding decisively forward while language itself becomes one of the album’s most powerful instruments. Arabic, Italian, Spanish, French, Greek and Ladino appear throughout the record as parts of a shared voice.

Opening the album is “Market Miracolo,” a track that unveils the record’s themes through the idea of an inner journey where the market becomes a metaphorical space where cultures, identities and experiences meet. Driven by shifting percussion and developing melodic passages, the track moves between moments of hypnotic groove and bursts of energy while layers of vocals accumulate as the song builds towards an intense finale, creating a powerful sense of motion and transformation.

“Meken Merteh” follows with a meditation on freedom, resistance and the courage required to fall before beginning again, propelled by the mesmeric patter of percussive loops and both dancing vocalisations and rhythmic delivery. “Nari,” featuring Borda, explores the tension between passion and darkness via a dynamic outing packed full of stuttering beats, enthralling vocal elements and charging energy while “Fluir” turns its attention towards water as a symbol of movement, renewal and life itself.

The album’s dialogue between traditions becomes especially vivid on “Buttana di to Mà,” where Sicilian and Arab Mediterranean influences meet, giving voice to a song of freedom, offering the perfect display of Racines’ groundbreaking sound. “Zorahayda” transforms the image of a rose into a symbol of unresolved longing before “Aman” finds moments of fragile but enduring joy beneath difficult circumstances, pairing soft woodwind with rolling percussion and intense vocal performance.

As the journey continues, “Taqfiz” channels nostalgia into movement and dance before the record closes with “Rumman,” meaning “pomegranate.” Transportive and immersive, the track pairs voice and oud in a meditation on memory, distance and the enduring pull of roots to deliver a spellbinding conclusion to Racines’ astonishing debut album. With Racines, Rokeya and Anissa have created a project that honours tradition with Arilos Mennar serving as a record where origins remain visible, but growth is always the destination, a meeting place for memory, movement and reinvention.

Listen to Arilos Mennar below