Tinariwen announce two album reissues to celebrate 20th anniversary

Music

Grammy winning multi-generational band Tinariwen have announced the reissue of two of albums: Amassakoul and their debut LP The Radio Tisdas Sessions, which was released 20 years ago.

The multi-generational Tuareg band – children of a nomadic Berber tribe with deep roots in the Saharan desert – are breathing life into this music once again with a special remastered and repackaged reissue, including a bonus previously unreleased song ‘Taskiwt Tadjat’.

The Radio Tisdas Sessions was their first commercially released album in 2001, recorded in Kidal at a local Tamashek-language radio station. The album features songs from the group’s founding father, Ibrahim Ag Alhabib, as well as Ag Alhabib, Kedou Ag Ossad, Foy Foy and Mohamed Ag Itlal aka ‘Japonais’, who passed away last year on February 14th.

The second album to be reissued is Amassakoul, originally released in 2004 and recorded at Studio Bogolan in Bamako. This album represented a new direction to a more honed, intricate sound with four of the six players on the album being newcomers. It features songs from Ibrahim Ag Alhabib, Abdallah Ag Alhousseyni, and Touhami Ag Alhassane.

Tinariwen’s journey can be traced back to the late 1970s when Ibrahim Ag Alhabib – following witnessing the execution of his father, a Tuareg rebel – built his own guitar out of an oil can, a stick and a bicycle brake wire. After teaching himself to play, he moved around meeting other Tuareg musicians along the way who he’d sit around campfires and write songs with. This earned them the name Kel Tinariwen, which in their native tongue Tamashek means “People of the Deserts” or “The Desert Boys”.

Tinariwen have played all over the world at festivals and shows like Coachella, Glastonbury, Later with Jools Holland and WOMAD, picking up fans along the way that include Thom Yorke, Brian Eno and Robert Plant.

Tracklisting

The Radio Tisdas Sessions

1. Le Chant Des Fauves
2. Nar Djenetbouba
3. Imidiwaren
4. Zin Es Gourmeden
5. Afours Afours
6. Tessalit
7. Kedou Kedou
8. Mataraden Anexan
9. Bismillah
10. Tessalit – Live At Festival Au Desert – Tin-essako
11. Ham Tinahghin Ane Yallah(bonus track – previously unreleased)

Watch the video for ‘Taskiwt Tadjat’.