The tale of Tinariwen begins with the story of its founding father, Ibrahim Ag Alhabib. The son of a Tuareg rebel, at the age of four Ibrahim witnessed his father’s execution at the hands of the government during the 1963 uprising in Mali.
Growing up in between the deserts and refugee camps of Algeria, Ibrahim was regarded as a wanderer and a loner – he was nicknamed ‘Abaraybone’, meaning ‘ragamuffin child’.
One day, he remembers, he was watching a western at a makeshift desert cinema and was struck by a scene in which a cowboy plays a song on a guitar.
Inspired, he built his first guitar using an oil can, a stick, and a bicycle brake wire. He started to learn to play, practising old Tuareg melodies, modern Arabic pop tunes, and the Malian blues music of Ali Farka Touré.
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 – and when the day is done, guitars around the campfire, singing songs of loss and longing, and ‘home on the range’.
Tinariwen is a Tuareg music band formed in 1979 on the borders of Mali and Algeria. Pioneers of the assouf style (“nostalgia” in tamashek), they address Tuareg people’s preoccupations in songs that mix traditional West African and Arab music with blues, folk and other influences.
To WIN tickets to this trailblazing show, simply send the good folk at Today Radio a WhatsApp with the answer to the following question: What is the most recent Tinariwen LP called?
+352 621 52 5000 is the number you need. GOOD LUCK!!!
Tinariwen play den Atelier on Thursday 22 August, click here for more info about the show.
