Tinariwen Unveil new album details

 
Music

Tinariwen, the band of Tuareg musicians hailing from the Sahara Desert, have revealed plans to release a new album in February 2014. ‘Emmaar’, which will be their sixth album, was recorded in a converted house in the Joshua Tree desert in California.

The band chose to record the album in a desert setting as it is where they feel “good to live and to create”, choosing Joshua Tree as it was a more easily accessible destination than the deserts in North Mali. The music still has a strong focus on life in the Sahara and it tells of Tuareg issues such as the need to be recognised by the country’s administration. There are tales of pligt and sorrow to be heard on Emmaar and the former BBC World Music Award winners combine feelings of nostalgia and hardship to tell tales of the chaos enveloping their homeland.

Some of the group’s original members remain ever-present on the album along with a new generation of Tuareg musiciand and a selection of American musicians including Josh Klinghoffer (RHCP), Matt Sweeney (Chavez), and poet Saul Williams. 

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Catch a glimpse of the first track to be released, Toumast Tincha, below.