Stream: Tinariwen, ‘Assàwt’

Daiana Feuer on January 23rd, 2017

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Tinariwen-Marie_Planeille — Tinariwen (photo by Marie Planeille)

Desert-blues Tuareg band Tinariwen has a new album, “Elwan,” coming Feb. 10 on Anti- Records. While inspired by their homeland, a conflict-torn Saharan mountain range between north-eastern Mali and southern Algeria, the album itself was recorded in two other desert landscapes, many miles away. Tinariwen spent some time in 2014 recording at Rancho de la Luna studios in Joshua Tree, where they completed 2014’s “Emmar” and began work on “Elwan.” Two years later, they finished this new album in M’Hamid El Ghizlane, a southern Moroccan oasis, where they set up tents and recorded with local musical youth and Berber ‘gnawa’ trance musicians. Additionally, “Elwan” features appearances from Kurt Vile, Matt Sweeney, Alain Johannes and Mark Lanegan. Feeding off the energy coursing around the world after this weekend of women’s marches, Tinariwen shares the song, “Assàwt,” about the Tamashek women who remain in the desert. Though the song is about suffering, the music is rhythmically energetic and uplifting, which steeps it with a sense of hope.

Here are the lyrics, translated:

“That’s the voice
of the Tamashek women
Searching for their freedom.
Those are the thoughts
of the old women
Living in a Sahara devoid of water,
Desiccated and miserable,
My wish is for it
to stop being subservient.
This is a message for those
Who toil for the revolution.”

||| Stream: “Assàwt”