LIBRARIES will echo to the sound of music during a series of concerts next week.

Hassan Erraji and Arabesque, who blend North African music with modern western rhythms, will be performing at four County Durham libraries.

Mr Erraji, from Morocco, is a blind master musician as well as a prolific composer and singer-songwriter.

A spokesman for Durham County Council libraries said: "Born in Tazart, a village near Marrakesh, he made music from an early age and made his first instrument from a tin can and a piece of wood, with bicycle brake cables for strings.

"As a teenager he performed with folk bands, then took up the oud, a fretless Arab lute, and studied Arab music theory.

"He graduated from Le Conservatoir Municipal de Casablanca before moving to Belgium to study violin and classical music.

"Although his main stage instrument is the oud, he is also accomplished with hand drums, the qanan, which is a type of harp-zither, the nay, which is an end-blown bamboo flute, and the violin.

"He performs throughout Britain and Europe, either solo or with Arabesque, playing the music of Arab countries with jazz and other third world traditional music.''

Previous concerts in the Live in the Libraries series have sold out.

The mini-tour will start at Murton Library on Monday October 13, and visit Newton Hall the following day. There will be a performance at Crook on Wednesday, October 15, and the mini-tour will finish at Barnard Castle on Thursday, October 16.

Each concert starts at 7.30pm. Tickets are available from the venues and cost £4, or £2 for concessions.