Tinariwen, the Grammy-winning Tuareg band who turned Saharan exile into desert blues, land at Northcote Theatre on 11 March.
The visit follows Hoggar, Tinariwen’s 10th album, released this year on their own label Wedge. They cut it in Tamanrasset, the Algerian desert city that gives the record its name, with family and friends drifting through the sessions. It’s the closest to home the band has recorded in years.
Hoggar also marks a reunion. Founding member Liya “Diarra” Ag Ablil, who left two decades ago to start Terakaft, is back on guitar across six tracks. Swedish singer-guitarist José González turns up as well, alongside Sudanese oud player and singer Sulafa Elyass.
Tinariwen
- Odeon, Hobart — 26 February
- City Recital Hall, Sydney — 2 March
- The Tivoli, Brisbane — 3 March
- The Northern, Byron Bay — 4 March
- WOMADelaide, Adelaide — 7 & 8 March
- Northcote Theatre, Melbourne — 11 March
- WOMAD NZ, Taranaki, New Zealand — 14 March
Stay up to date with what’s happening in and around Melbourne here.
Musically, Hoggar heads back to where the band started. The songs lean on acoustic guitars and the communal, campfire-style singing Tinariwen came up on, and they carry the subjects the band has worked for decades: protest, love, exile, hope. Younger Tuareg musicians play alongside the founders throughout, which is how the group has always run — players come and go, the line-up shifts.
Tinariwen formed in 1979 in the Adrar des Ifoghas, up in northern Mali, and they’re the pioneers of assouf, the desert blues sound plenty of other acts have since borrowed. The Radio Tisdas Sessions pushed their Tamasheq-language songs past the Sahara in the early 2000s. Across 45 years they’ve clocked up more than 1,270 concerts and 10 albums, with three Grammy nominations and a win for Tassili. Jack White, Flea, Kurt Vile, Warren Ellis, Micah Nelson and Yusuf Islam have all recorded or played with them.
Tickets for every date are on sale now, with Top Shelf presenting. In Melbourne that’s a single night at Northcote Theatre on 11 March, part of a run that also takes in two WOMADelaide sets and a WOMAD date across the Tasman. More shows are still to be announced.
For more information, head here.
