'Idrache (Traces Of The Past)' features a dozen hidden gems from the Sahara. Rough hewn, but intimate and beautiful recordings by Tinariwen, the world’s most famous Tuareg band. Some are demos that were later released in more produced versions on subsequent albums and four of them have never been released before. This is music to transport you, music that makes you feel you are in the Sahara with these extraordinary musicians for whom it is their home and their inspiration. These are raw desert treasures, recorded live with no overdubs, that are only emerging into the sunlight with this album of rarities, Idrache, Traces of the Past.

With their long desert robes and Tuareg turbans or shesh, Tinariwen are the originators of what’s become known as ‘desert blues’, a style of music they themselves call ‘assuf’ which also means ‘longing’ or ‘homesickness’ in the Tamasheq language. Exchanging Kalashnikovs for guitars after participating in the 1990 Tuareg rebellion, Tinariwian really are rock ’n’ roll rebels, drawing people into their growling vocals, spacey guitar lines and clapping rhythms. Over the past two decades, they’ve been popular and regular guests at festivals all around the world where they’ve done a lot to raise awareness about Tuareg culture and identity.

The songs on this album were recorded in 2002, 2006 and 2008, the first about a decade after the band started to become known internationally. The opening track ‘Soixante Trois’ refers to the Tuareg rebellion in Mali of 1963. It was written by the band’s charismatic founder and leader Ibrahim Ag Alhabib who, as a young boy aged four, saw his father killed in that conflict. With its nimble guitar playing and soulful vocals it sounds confessional and direct. “’63 has gone, but will return / That time has left us memories.”

Although the members of Tinariwen all come from Mali - mostly from Kidal and the surrounding region - their music began in Tamanrasset in southern Algeria. The Tuareg have no state of their own but are scattered across the desert regions of Mali, Algeria, Libya and Niger. Ibrahim grew up in refugee camps in southern Algeria and it was in Tamanrasset that he was given an acoustic guitar and met other Malian Tuareg musicians with whom he formed a group which became known as Kel Tinariwen (People of the Deserts). In 1985 Ibrahim and other musicians moved to a Toureg rebel camp in Libya known as ‘Tin Mars’ (The 2nd March). There Tinariwen became the musical mouthpiece of the movement and their songs became widely known in the community, passed around and copied on cassettes.

When the next Tuareg rebellion broke out in 1990, six key members of the band, including Ibrahim, actively took part in the struggle. A peace agreement known as the Tamanrasset Accords was signed in January 1991 and Tinariwen decided to devote themselves solely to music. They started to get international recognition thanks to the Festival in the Desert near Timbuktu, which first took place in 2001 and really caught people’s imagination. And thanks to their first international album, The Radio Tisdas Sessions, produced by Justin Adams in the radio studio in Kidal. Now in 2024, due to the political unrest in Mali, Tinariwen are once again based in various locations in southern Algeria. The band have differing views on what the future of the Tuareg should be - from more recognition and integration as a minority within Mali to an independent state of Azawad. When I question him, Abdallah Ag Alhousseyni, one of the veterans of the 1990 rebellion, says “my hope is the same as it’s always been. That one day people will recognise that this is Touareg land since time immemorial. Azawad is not for today or tomorrow, but maybe in a hundred years it will arrive.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Soixante Trois
2. Assuf Ag Assuf
3. Amoss Idjraw
4. Azaman Amikankanen
5. Adounia Nissan
6. Amidinin War Hi Toyed
7. Imidiwan Ma Tennam
8. Alkhar Dessouf
9. Tenere Maloulat
10. Tenhert
11. Adounia Ti Chidjret
12. Tenere Dafeo Nikchan

Tinariwen, the pioneering, Grammy-winning Tuareg collective, share a new limited edition picture disc vinyl. It features the four bonus tracks that originally appeared on the deluxe edition of their acclaimed ninth studio album Amatssou. Lead single ‘He Layla’ is inspired by a traditional song from the Djanet region (where the Amatssou album was recorded). In typical Tinariwen fashion, the song tells the story of the past when the Sahara was under the French colony – poetry using metaphors of the wild life of the desert.

In the two decades since Tinariwen emerged from their base in the African desert to tour the globe, they have got to know many renowned country, folk, and rock musicians from the USA including Kurt Vile, Stephen O'Malley, Jack White, and Wilco. Tuareg nomads and cowboy drifters. Camel trains and mustang horses. The timeless horizon of the endless Sahara and the wild frontier of the Old West - several thousand miles of ocean may divide the desert blues of Tinariwen and the authentic country music of rural America but the links are as palpable as they are romantic.

TRACK LISTING

Side A

A1. Tiwyaghe Falam Fakra
A2. He Layla

Side B

B1. Mayssasnan Imanine
B2. Emalinine

Some people have commented that Tinariwen have always been a country band, albeit a North African take on that most North American of genres. That idea is magnified on new album Amatssou, which finds the Tuareg band’s trademark snaking guitar lines and hypnotic rhythms blending seamlessly with pedal steel, piano and strings from guest musicians including Daniel Lanois, the embellished arrangements lending the songs an epic, universal application.

Full of poetic allegory, the lyrics call for unity and freedom. There are songs of struggle and resistance with oblique references to the recent desperate political upheavals in Mali and the increasing power of the Salafists. “Dear brothers all rest, all leisure will always be far from reach unless your homeland is liberated and all the elders can live there in dignity,” Ibrahim Ag Alhabib sings on ‘Arajghiyine.’ The album’s title Amatssou is Tamashek for ‘Beyond The Fear’ and it fits - Tinariwen have always been characterised by their fearlessness - and as Bob Dylan once said, the power of rock’n’roll is that it makes us “oblivious to the fear” as the music gives us the strength and resilience to confront adversity.

In the two decades since Tinariwen emerged from their base in the African desert to tour the globe, they have got to know many renowned country, folk, and rock musicians from the USA including Kurt Vile, Stephen O'Malley, Jack White, and Wilco. Tuareg nomads and cowboy drifters. Camel trains and mustang horses. The timeless horizon of the endless Sahara and the wild frontier of the Old West - several thousand miles of ocean may divide the desert blues of Tinariwen and the authentic country music of rural America but the links are as palpable as they are romantic.

TRACK LISTING

Vinyl Tracklist:
A1. Kek Alghalm
A2. Tenere Den
A3. Arajghiyine
A4. Tidjit
A5. Jayche Atarak
B1. Imidiwan Mahitinam
B2. Ezlan
B3. Anemouhagh
B4. Iket Adjen
B5. Nak Idnizdjam

CD Tracklist:
1.  Kek Alghalm
2.  Tenere Den
3.  Arajghiyine
4.  Imzad (Interlude)
5.  Tidjit
6.  Jayche Atarak
7.  Imidiwan Mahitinam
8.  Imzad 2 (Interlude)
9.  Ezlan
10.  Anemouhagh
11.  Iket Adjen
12.  Nak Idnizdjam
13.  Tinde (Outro)

First-ever vinyl reissue of 2009’s Imidiwan: Companions by acclaimed Saharan Tuareg group Tinariwen. Pressed on 180-gram heavyweight vinyl, the album hypnotically blends Malian desert blues with twanging guitar-led Tichumaren agit-prop to create a sound altogether unique.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1 Imidiwan Afrik Tendam
2 Lulla
3 Tenhert
4 Enseqi Ehad Didagh
5 Tahult In
6 Tamodjerazt Assis
7 Intitlayaghen
Side B
1 Imazeghen N Adagh
2 Tenalle Chegret
3 Kel Tamashek
4 Assuf Ag Assuf
5 Chabiba
6 Ere Tasfata Adounia

First-ever vinyl reissue of critically acclaimed Saharan Tuareg group Tinariwen’s third album, Aman Iman: Water Is Life. Released internationally via Independiente in 2007, reissued here on 180-gram heavyweight vinyl, the album was produced by long-time associate Justin Adams and features the voice and guitar of founding member Mohammed Ag Itlale. The GRAMMY Award winning collective perform a guitar-centric branch of Malian music known as Tishoumaren a percussive, rock-oriented desert blues.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1 Cler Achel
2 Mano Dayak
3 Matadjem Yinmixan
Side B
1 Ahimana
2 Soixante Trois
3 Toumast
Side C
1 Imidiwan WinakaliN
2 Awa Didjen
3 Ikyadarh Dim
Side D
1 Tamatant Tilay
2 Assouf
3 Izarharh Tenere

A revelatory discovery in the Tinariwen archives, Kel Tinariwen is an early cassette tape recorded in the early 90s that never received a wider release, and sheds new light on the band’s already rich history. Not having yet developed the fuller band sound that they became internationally established with, Kel Tinariwen features their trademark hypnotic guitar lines and call-and-response vocals weaving in between raw drum machine rhythms and keyboard melodies that almost evoke an Arabic take on 80s synth-pop.

There’s distinct parallels with the sounds found on this tape and the work uncovered in recent years by cratedigger labels such as Awesome Tapes From Africa, Sahel Sounds and Sublime Frequencies. Kel Tinariwen features songs from Abdallah Ag Alhousseyni, Hassan Ag Touhami aka ‘Abin Abin’, Kedou Ag Ossad, Liya Ag Ablil aka ‘Diarra’ and Keltoum Sennhauser.

TRACK LISTING

1. À L’Histoire
2. Mas Azalene Wi Amoutenene
3. Adounia Tarha
4. Matadjem Yinmexan
5. Amoud Falas Aljalat
6. Ayat Sendad Eghlalane
7. Tenidagh Hegh Dejredjere
8. Arghane Manine

The 20th Anniversary edition of Tinariwen’s first studio album The Radio Tisdas Sessions has been remastered and repackaged with a bonus unreleased bonus track, exclusive photos and brand-new liner notes.

The Radio Tisdas Sessions feature songs from Ibrahim Ag Alhabib, Kedou Ag Ossad, Mohamed Ag Itlal aka ‘Japonais' who passed away on February 14th 2021, and Foy Foy.

Tinariwen are Tuaregs, children of a nomadic Berber tribe who have roamed the Saharan desert for thousands of years. Over recent centuries, colonialism has seen the Tuareg’s ancestral territory partitioned into distinct countries - Mali, Algeria, Libya, Niger. This drawing of borders has turned the Tuareg into ishumar, a displaced people in search of a homeland lost to them. Tinariwen’s music – a blend of West African traditional music and electrified rock’n’roll – speaks directly to this feeling of longing: a sound that critics have called “desert blues”.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
A1 Le Chant Des Fauves
A2 Nar Djenetbouba

Side B
B1 Imidiwaren
B2 Zin Es Gourmeden

Side C
C1 Afours Afours (5:27)
C2 Tessalit (3:58)
C3 Kedou Kedou (6:13)

Side D
D1 Mataraden Anexan
D2 Bismillah
D3 Tessalit - Live At Festival Au Desert - Tin-essako
D4 Ham Tinahghin Ane Yallah (Bonus Unreleased)

Tinariwen’s breakthrough album originally released in 2004, now remastered and repackaged with a bonus unreleased track, exclusive photos and brand-new liner notes.  Amassakoul features songs from Ibrahim Ag Alhabib, Abdallah Ag Alhousseyni, Touhami Ag Alhassane.

Tinariwen are Tuaregs, children of a nomadic Berber tribe who have roamed the Saharan desert for thousands of years. Over recent centuries, colonialism has seen the Tuareg’s ancestral territory partitioned into distinct countries - Mali, Algeria, Libya, Niger. This drawing of borders has turned the Tuareg into ishumar, a displaced people in search of a homeland lost to them. Tinariwen’s music – a blend of West African traditional music and electrified rock’n’roll – speaks directly to this feeling of longing: a sound that critics have called “desert blues”.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
A1 Amassakoul’n’ténéré
A2 Oualahila Ar Tesninam
A3 Chatma

Side B
B1 Arawan
B2 Chet Boghassa
B3 Amidinin

Side C
C1 Ténéré Daféo Nikchan
C2 Aldhechen Manin
C3 Alkhar Dessouf

Side D
D1 Eh Massina Sintadoben
D2 Assoul
D3 Taskiwt Tadjat (Bonus Track Unreleased)

The best Tinariwen album hasn’t been recorded yet. Perhaps it never will be. Because the best Tinariwen music isn’t the music they perform in front of microphones. It’s the music they play at night around the fire, back in their own country, amongst themselves and at their own pace. Having eaten, and drunk their tea, the men bring out their guitars, chat, remember old songs and let the music come. In those moments, the music can become like the fire, free, magical and impossible to stuff into a box. It rises up like a shower of sparks or a state of grace, without premeditation; the momentary manifestation of a friendship, a community, an environment, a history; the revelatory connection with something that belongs only to them, and goes beyond them. Their discography stretching out over the last 17 years, all the tours and the international recognition have changed nothing: Tinariwen are still a desert band, only certain aspects of which the western music industry can ever hope to capture and present. Tinariwen existed long before any of their albums were recorded, and they still exist quite distinct from their discographic dimension. So, the best Tinariwen album doesn’t exist. But it’s still worth trying to go and find it.

The story of Amadjar, the ninth Tinariwen album, begins at the end of October 2018, at the Taragalte Festival of nomadic cultures in the Moroccan Sahara. After a concert and a sandstorm, Tinariwen hit the road and head for Mauritania, via southern Morocco, Western Sahara and the Atlantic coast. The destination is important (the band have to set up and record their album there, and hook up with the singer Noura Mint Seymali), but no more so than the journey itself. Tinariwen are joined by their French production team, who arrive in old camper van that’s been converted into a makeshift studio. The journey to Nouakchott, capital of Mauritania, takes a dozen days or so. Every evening, the caravan stops to set up camp and the members of Tinariwen get to work under the stars – a whole lot better than being in a studio after all – to prepare for the recording, talking things through, letting their guitar motifs, thoughts and long buried songs come. Then, during a final camp in the desert around Nouakchott that lasts about fifteen days, to an audience of scorpions, the band record their songs under large tent. In a few live takes, without headphones or effects. The Mauritanian griotte Noura Mint Seymali and her guitarist husband, Jeiche Ould Chigaly, come to throw their musical tradition on the embers lit by Tinariwen – the curling vocals of Noura Mint Seymali on the song ‘Amalouna’ will become a highlight.

This nomadic album, recorded in a natural setting, is as close as you can get to Tinariwen. And also, therefore, to the idea that things can evolve: bassist Eyadou plays a lot of acoustic guitar; percussionist Said tries his hand at new instruments; Abdallah exhumes songs that he’s never played on stage with Tinariwen. And that violin that appears on several songs and reminds you of the traditional imzad? It’s actually played by Warren Ellis. The violinist in Nick Cave’s band is one of several western guests on the album. We also hear the mandolin and charango of Micah Nelson (son of the country music giant Willie Nelson, and Neil Young’s guitarist), and the guitars of Stephen O’Malley (Sunn O)))), Cass McCombs and Rodolphe Burger. The album is mixed by Jack White’s buddy Joshua Vance Smith.

In the end, Amadjar tells the story of several journeys: the one undertaken to prepare the album, and the one that Tinariwen take between two worlds, theirs and ours, with that constant need to pass from one to the other before coming back to the roots. “I’m in a complete solitude, where thoughts frighten me, and lost in their midst I arose and noticed that I was thirsty and wanted water,” sings Ibrahim on ‘Ténéré Maloulat’, the first song on the album. A return to the source of Tamashek poetry. In the middle of other more political songs, through always desolate, these words express deep distress and survival, but also movement. Amadjar means ‘the unknown visitor’ in Tamashek, the one who seeks hospitality and who’s condemned to an inner exile, within a territory or within himself; just like the members of Tinariwen, who feel at home on the journey, around the fire with a few immutable songs. The best Tinariwen album will never be. But Amadjar is more essential than all the others. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: Desert rock superstars Tinariwen's ninth LP is the closest the tuareg troop have come to capturing their live sound in the studio, largely because "Amadjar" was conceived, composed and recorded across a trail of temporary studios during a North African road trip.

TRACK LISTING

1 Tenere Maloulat
2 Zawal
3 Amalouna
4 Taqkal Tarha
5 Anina
6 Madjam Mahilkamen
7 Takount
8 Iklam Dglour
9 Kel Tinawen
10 Itous Ohar
11 Mhadjar Yassouf Idjan
12 Wartilla
13 Lalla

In 2014 Tinariwen stopped at Rancho de la Luna studios in the desert of California’s Joshua Tree National Park. While location proved particularly propitious in terms of creativity, the human climate was just as favourable, as musicians dropped by to add their own touch. Piccadilly faves Kurt Vile and Mark Lanegan, Cat Power guitarist Matt Sweeny and Queens Of The Stone Age producer Alan Johannes all joined the band in the baking heat, bringing their contrasting but complimentary styles to the project. All of this was honed by engineer Andrew Schepps, who offered Tinariwen the same sonic precision he lent to Red Hot Chili Peppers, Johnny Cash and Jay Z. Two years later, in M’Hamid El Ghizlane, an oasis in southern Morocco near the Algerian frontier, the band set up their tents for recording, accompanied by the local musical youth and a Ganga outfit (a group of Berber ‘gnawa’ trance musicians). "Elwan" ("The Elephants") is musically powerful and thematically poignant: every song evokes a land that can no longer be found, with all the emotions this elicits, from nostalgia for a joyous past to the tragic recent loss of a territory and of the dream that it nourished. Vital music from the irrepressible Tuareg troupe.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: As spellbinding as they ever were, Tuareg desert-rockers Tinariwen pull out another brilliant suite of hypnotising melodies, imbibed with pure dusty heat, traditional instrumentation and their own impeccable grace. As essential as anything they've ever done.

Hugely celebrated and acclaimed, Tinariwen released their debut album, ‘The Radio Tisdas Sessions’ in 2001, and over the past decade they have continually toured the world, picking up some of the most respected music awards, including a BBC Award for World Music in 2005, the prestigious Praetorius Music Prize in Germany in 2008, the Uncut Music Award in 2009 for ‘Imidiwan: Companions’ and, most recently, a Grammy for their 2011 album ‘Tassili’.

‘Emmaar’ was recorded in the Joshua Tree desert, California, due to political instability in their country - the first time the band have recorded away from their homeland. “It still had to be recorded in a desert,” says bassist Eyadou Ag Leche. “We would like to live in peace in the North of Mali, but this is very difficult, there is no administration, no banks, no food, no gas. Joshua Tree is in the high desert of California, we love all the desert, these are places where we feel good to live and to create.”

Recorded over three weeks in a home studio, ‘Emmaar’ has a distinctly organic feel. “We weren’t in a proper studio or outside in the desert like ‘Tassili’,” Ag Leche says. “We built a studio in a big house in Joshua Tree. Everybody in the same room, with no separation. We wanted something which sounded natural and live.”

Guests on the album include Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Josh Klinghoffer, Matt Sweeney from Chavez, Nashville fiddler Fats Kaplin, and poet Saul Williams.

TRACK LISTING

1. Toumast Tincha
2. Chaghaybou
3. Arhegh Danagh
4. Timadrit In Sahara
5. Imidiwan Ahi Sigdim
6. Tahalamot
7. Sendad Eghlalan
8. Imidiwanin Ahi Tifhamam
9. Koud Edhaz Emin
10. Emajer