Al'Tarba (France)

French beatmaker/composer, signed to I.O.T Records label, and also member of the Toulouse-based crew Droogz Brigade, Al'Tarba is joyful chaos. 

A biographer would lose his way trying to retrace his career, as everything or almost everything has been said about him.

 

Active since the mid-2000s, his body of work spans 7 LPs, 3 EPs and numerous collaborations, with acts such as Seth Gueko, Swift Guad, Nekfeu, Dooz Kawa, le Gouffre, Hugo TSR and that is just within the scope of French rap. His latest project "Le Cabinet des Curiosités", which brings together some twenty artists is proof, if any were needed, that he is one of the most prolific artists in his field. 

 

Far from having exhausted his imagination and energy, the musical ballads of this curious man do not stop here. In an insatiable search for paths unexplored, Al'Tarba likes to navigate through dark sounds and even horrorcore, in the line of Necro and DJ Stoupe, while embarking on electro-swing instrumentals like Chinese Man and sometimes indulging in softer winds, in the furrow of abstract artists such as RJD2 or DJ Shadow.

 

Identifiable by his sounds: dark and eerie atmospheres with always-perceptible cinematographic influences, Al'Tarba proves to be a cultivated solo artist, claiming complexity and tearing apart all labels, starting with that of the purist.

 

In his last album signed on I.O.T Records, 'La Fin des Contes' (The End of Tales), Al'Tarba offers us an immersive experience in a universe that is sometimes fairy tale-like, sometimes nightmarish. From the horrific bad dream to the luminous nursery rhyme, 'La Fin des Contes' is the consecration of one of his most accomplished projects.