Tinariwen

Wielding a hypnotic sound born out of exiled wanderings and campfire jams, the desert-blues band Tinariwen use languid guitar licks and plaintive lyrics to pay tribute to the nomadic Tuareg people and their troubled homeland in the Sahara of West Africa. The group formed in 1979 as a loose collective known as Kel Tinariwen—meaning “The People of the Deserts” or “The Desert Boys” in the Tuareg language of Tamashek. Living as refugees-turned-rebels in Algerian frontier cities and Libyan military camps, cofounders Ibrahim Ag Alhabib and Alhassane Ag Touhami spent several years playing with other musicians and honing a distinct guitar style inspired by West African folk masters like Ali Farka Touré and bootlegged cassettes of Dire Straits. The group relocated to Mali in 1989, where some members broke off to fight in a Tuareg rebellion against the government. But the group redoubled their musical efforts after the war ended, and they eventually reached an international breakthrough in 2001, headlining the inaugural edition of Mali’s storied Festival in the Desert and releasing their debut album, The Radio Tisdas Sessions. Tinariwen have seen remarkable global success in the years since—including a Grammy win in 2012 and collabs with Western artists like songwriter Cass McCombs and TV on the Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe and Kyp Malone—but their music stays rooted in the desert, whose vast landscapes and recurring conflicts fuel the musicians’ inspiration and longing.