Pat Jabbar is a producer, musician and founder of the record label Barraka el Farnatshi.[1] He is of Swiss, Russian and French descent.
Born in Hamburg, Germany, he grew up in Basel, Switzerland. In 1984 he discovered Arabic music in Israel. One year later, he went to Morocco, where he met many musicians. In 1988, the first CD "El Buya" by Aisha Kandisha's Jarring Effects was released and published on Barraka El Farnatshi Prod. In 1992, he sent the CD to Bill Laswell, who wanted to work with Pat Jabbar and also helped him establish his record company. The name Jabbar derives from abdeljabbar which was the name given to Pat Jabbar by his Moroccan friends. Most of the CDs published on Barraka El Farnatshi Prod. are produced by Pat Jabbar himself and his collaborators; he also publishes CDs he licensed from other companies, among them works by Hamid Baroudi, Maniacs vs. Sharkiat and Hypnotix. Pat Jabbar also discovered Turkish rappers Makale from Basel and produced some of their music. He worked with French-Arabic chanteuse Sapho (singer), co-producing her album "Digital Sheikha". Bill Laswell produced tracks for Aisha Kandisha's Jarring Effects (the ur-posse from which most of Barraka's projects and groups came), Ahlam and Azzddine. His newest group Maghrebika consists of himself and two Algerians now living in Switzerland, namely Abdelkader Belkacem and Abdelaziz Lamari. Bill Laswell once again is featured as a guest musician.
The latest project Kasbah Rockers (referring to The Clash song "Rock The Casbah") started in 2008 and is active until now. Sort of Moroccan artist collective, melting Algerian, Middle Eastern, Turkish and African (Somalia, Senegal, Cameroon) tribal roots with diverse styles of Electronica, as influences of Dub, Trip Hop, Psy Trance and Dance sounds. Soundtrack contributions for Hollywood blockbusters, Indie films and TV series, became lately one of their main activities. The placements reach from Netflix series such as "The Recruit", over cult Indie flicks like Jim Jarmusch's "Only Lovers Left Alive", to blockbusters as "Inception", "Taken 2" or "Sex & The City 2".
Some tracks like "Rarnati" & "Black Pikala Noir", do indicate an unmistakable foible for distorted guitar sounds. "Saharizona Ultraviolet" from 2019, a homage to Ennio Morricone & Tarantino, was the debut for a whole collection of singles, featuring diverse guests from the legendary Swiss/Moroccan Barraka label.
The collaborations with Somalian singer Sam J Samatar & Bill Laswell, led to placements in Apple TV series "Little America" and Netflix show "Lonely Planet".On their debut album from 2008, simply titled Kasbah Rockers with Bill Laswell, Bill Laswell played bass on 11 tracks, grooving along with eclectic artists such as Youssef El Mejjad from Amira Saqati, Maghrebika or Casus.
In 2023, a re-release of the Sheikha songs from Sapho album "Digital Sheikha", is entitled "The Sheikha Tracks Remastered".