Going Under the Surface

When music producer Nick Wilde’s recording studio Fat Fox in London went up in flames, he invested his money, impetus and energy to rebuild it. It was the two following floods within six months that he took it as a sign to pull up stakes. Together with his wife, Nick moved to Marrakech, bought a beautiful Riad in the medina and started over. Without any real plans to professionally run a studio in Morocco, his reputation as a producer preceded him and things fell into place “People just started to turn up at the house,” he recalls, “there’d be a knock at the door and a kid would be standing there, saying that he’s a rapper.” Not wanting to turn the locals away, he started working with them and eventually founded his new label Marrakchi Records.

By diving into the Moroccan music scene, Nick met photographer Lamia Naji through a mutual friend. When she sent him a video she composed of photographs called 'Couleurs Primaires', he was blown away. “It’s something that I wanted to do musically, what she did with the camera. She went under the surface of a scene which is pretty difficult to crack.” Lamia captured moments of a spirutal Gnawa ritual in her photographs and re-animated them in a rhythmic video edit, creating a fusion between tradition and modernity. Lamia sees photography as an exploration of our inward spectrum. “If I take a camera,” she says, “I’m going to let myself go with my feelings, with whatever makes me feel something.”

Find out more about Lamia Naji’s photography and Nick Wilde’s recording studio.
 

Editorial Lead Kitty Bolhoefer / Filming & Photos Fridolin Schöpper / Editing Konterfei / Music BUNNYSTRIPES