Mazaher is a group of musicians and singers from Cairo who have kept Egyptian zār traditions alive since the late 1990s. Zār is ritual music built on song, dance and polyrhythmic drumming, intended to create harmony among participants and loosen the social bonds that hold people down.
Women lead the ritual. Among the performers are Um Sameh, Um Hassan and Nour El Sabah, some of the last people in Egypt still practicing zār.
Their music draws on three different Egyptian zār styles, centred on the sacred six-stringed tamboura and the mangour percussion instrument. The group has performed across Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, and has played at ALICE before.