For those Lady Lori clients that are fans of African music, let me introduce you to Tinariwen.

Tinariwen is a band of dislocated Saharan nomads that formed in a Lybian refugee camp more than 20 years ago. ?Their latest album, Tassili, was released on August 30th. On this album, the band have set down their electric guitars and returned to the very essence of their art. Recorded in a protected region of the South-Eastern Algerian desert, the group returned to the roots of their music, with only acoustic guitars and unamplified percussion.

Tinariwen crossed over to Western audiences with their previous two releases, 2007’s Aman Iman and 2009’s Imidiwan. Though they’re members of the nomadic Tuareg tribe native to Mali, Tinariwen do not play traditional Tuareg music. Influenced by electric blues as much as local Arab or West African sounds, Tinariwen has created their own unique musical strain. Performed on acoustic guitars, Tassili (the name of the Algerian desert where this was recorded) is their sparest release so far, yet its impact remains as deep and immediate as the albums featuring electric instruments. Hypnotic, intertwining guitars mix with droning, call-and-response vocals, hand drums, and clapping to create a rich and complex sound that is completely absorbing. As always they deliver some tough, funky grooves, but it’s the quieter, breathtakingly beautiful tracks like “Walla Illa,” “Tameyawt,” and “Iswegh Attay” that reveal a different side to the band. Mesmerizing and evocative, this is another sublime release by these masters of the desert blues.

Via: popdrum