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Tinariwen - “Zawal” (Track of the Day)

Tinariwen, a group of Tuareg musicians originally from the Adrar des Ifoghas region of the Sahara Desert in northern Mali, perform at the Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver on Oct. 8. Tickets are available from Ticketmaster: https://www1.ticketmaster.
Tinariwen
Tinariwen, on tour in support of their new album, Amadjar, perform at the Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver on Oct. 8.

Tinariwen, a group of Tuareg musicians originally  from the Adrar des Ifoghas region of the Sahara Desert in northern Mali, perform at the Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver on Oct. 8. Tickets are available from Ticketmaster: https://www1.ticketmaster.ca/tinariwen-vancouver-british-columbia-10-08-2019/event/11005682DA4149ED?f_PPL=3&ab=efeat7336.

“Zawal,” comes from their new album, Amadjar, released earlier this month on ANTI-Records. The track features Tinariwen performing with guest musicians Warren Ellis (of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds), Mauritanian musician Noura Mint Seymali and Seymali’s husband, guitarist Jeiche Ould Chighaly.

The track was written by Abdallah Ag Alhousseyni after witnessing his first solar eclipse.

Tinariwen talk about making the new album on their website: “The story of Amadjar, the ninth Tinariwen album, begins at the end of October 2018, at the Taragalte Festival of nomadic cultures in the Moroccan Sahara. After a concert and a sandstorm, Tinariwen hit the road and head for Mauritania, via southern Morocco, Western Sahara and the Atlantic coast. The destination is important (the band have to set up and record their album there, and hook up with the singer Noura Mint Seymali), but no more so than the journey itself. Tinariwen are joined by their French production team, who arrive in old camper van that’s been converted into a makeshift studio. The journey to Nouakchott, capital of Mauritania, takes a dozen days or so. Every evening, the caravan stops to set up camp and the members of Tinariwen get to work under the stars – a whole lot better than being in a studio after all – to prepare for the recording, talking things through, letting their guitar motifs, thoughts and long buried songs come. Then, during a final camp in the desert around Nouakchott that lasts about 15 days, to an audience of scorpions, the band record their songs under large tent. In a few live takes, without headphones or effects. This nomadic album, recorded in a natural setting, is as close as you can get to Tinariwen.”