Fez — What happens to a song when the electronic production falls away? For Dutch-Moroccan musician Roufaida, the answer involves guitars, voices, and the sounds of guembri and awisha.
Her forthcoming acoustic performance at Groningen’s Lutherse Kerk on November 12 will revisit material from “Coming Up For Air,” following a series of electronic club shows.
Venue SPOT Groningen presents the concert as a stripped-back interpretation of the record. Co-writer Nina Sampermans and musician Silvan van der Zwaag will join her, building an ensemble around singing and acoustic instruments.
A different life for the same songs
The performance accompanies “Coming Up For Air Extended,” an expanded edition of Roufaida’s 2025 album. Released this October, it adds two new songs and four acoustic reworkings.
Among the additions is “Mid Air,” a self-produced track concerned with the fear of disappointing someone and making promises that might prove impossible to keep.
In a release announcement published on October 12, Roufaida described experimenting with bass guitar and returning to her violin to place organic textures alongside synthesizer layers.
That detail offers a useful entry into her music. Acoustic and electronic sounds remain available to her as different ways of expressing a song’s emotional tension. The upcoming arrangements give listeners another version of that relationship.
Poetry inside the groove
Roufaida’s engagement with North African music predates the new arrangements.
Her self-titled 2023 EP included “Don’t Bend,” which incorporated the deep tones of the Moroccan guembri. Another track, “Kalimat,” drew inspiration from a poem by Syrian writer Nizar Qabbani.
Those references sit within an alternative-pop practice whose cited influences include Rosalía, Björk, and Arooj Aftab. Arabic poetry contributes to the songwriting, while instruments associated with her North African heritage help shape its sound.
The EP brought performances across the Benelux countries, Germany, and Morocco, alongside two Edison Award nominations, according to her festival biography.
From festival stage to church setting
Before Groningen, Roufaida will perform at Crossing Border in The Hague on November 6. The festival confirms her appearance at its Lange Voorhout festival tent.
The Groningen concert offers a more specific experiment: hearing these songs carried by a smaller acoustic ensemble. For a musician working across inherited sounds and contemporary pop, rearrangement becomes another part of writing—an opportunity to discover what a familiar song can still reveal.