Legendary desert rock band Tinariwen LIVE in Athens

Tinariwen, the “wandering bluesmen of the Sahara” arrives in Athens.

Prepare to experience the magic of the Sahara as the legendary desert rock band Tinariwen—one of the most acclaimed groups on the global stage—arrives in Athens. They will be performing on Thursday, September 19, 2024, at the Municipal Theatre of Lycabettus.

Since their formation in 1979 along the Mali-Algeria border, Tinariwen has been a pioneering force in world music. The band, founded by guitarist and singer Ibrahim Ag Alhabib—whose first guitar was crafted from an oil can, a stick, and a bicycle brake cable—emerged from a backdrop of exile and rebellion. The 1980s saw the band honing their unique sound while in exile, amidst political turmoil in their homeland of Mali.

Their music, rich with themes of Tuareg culture and desert life, began gaining international acclaim in the 1990s. Their groundbreaking debut studio album, “The Radio Tisdas Sessions” (2001), was followed by the critically acclaimed “Amassakoul” (2004) and “Aman Iman” (2007). These albums garnered praise from iconic artists such as Thom Yorke, Robert Plant, Brian Eno, and Carlos Santana, and captivated the admiration of Wilco, Cat Power, Bon Iver, and Jack White with their soulful grooves and distinctive guitar riffs.

More than four decades after their inception, Tinariwen, the “wandering bluesmen of the Sahara” as they call themselves, continue to shine brightly on the global stage. Their unique assouf—Tamashek for nostalgia—blends traditional West African and Arabic music with blues, folk, and rock influences, drawing inspiration from legends such as Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, Santana, and country music.

As authentic rock and roll revolutionaries, Tinariwen have not only collaborated with renowned artists like Mark Lanegan and Kurt Vile but have also graced over 1,100 stages worldwide. Their impressive performance resume includes sharing the spotlight with iconic figures such as Carlos Santana and Robert Plant. The band has released nine studio albums, three of which have received Grammy nominations. Their celebrated album “Tassili” won the Grammy Award for Best World Music Album in 2012, solidifying their status as trailblazers in world music.

Constantly on the road

Guitar luminary + Tuareg folk hero Omara “Bombino” Moctar knows the nomadic life well. Being constantly on the road for his music while also perpetually on the move throughout the Sahel region of Africa is the norm. So when the pandemic brought the world to a screeching halt, Bombino found himself in an unfamiliar space: being in one place. “I’m used to traveling virtually every week and then I was locked down for two years,” he says from his home in Niamey, the capital of Niger. “On the positive side, I get back in touch with my home and spend real time there with my family for the first time in a long time.”

What resulted was the follow-up to 2018’s Deran, a record that turned Bombino into the first-ever Grammy-nominated artist from Niger. This new collection of songs, entitled Sahel after the African region spanning East-West from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea, is Bombino’s most personal, powerful, and politically-minded work to date. It’s also his most sonically diverse, a quality he set out to achieve from the start, and one that is meant to directly mirror the complex tapestry of cultures and people that make up the Sahel region itself. He says, “the general plight of the Tuareg is always on my mind and while I’ve addressed it in my music all along, I wanted to give it a special focus on this album.”

To bring the songs to life, Bombino worked closely with Welsh producer/ mixer David Wrench (David Byrne, Frank Ocean, Caribou, Goldfrapp, Erasure,The xx, Sampha), decamping with his bandmates to a studio in Casablanca for ten days to lay down the album. While Bombino has been fortunate to have sympathetic guitarists like Dan Auerbach and David Longstreth sit in the producer’s chair in the past, Wrench provided a new level of expertise.

The ten songs that comprise Sahel range in theme from the plight of the Tuareg to the ache of lost love to the follies of youth. Sahel looks forward and to the past, a mix of new and old songs, but each one of them resonated with Bombino for one reason or another.

Don’t miss the chance to witness the powerful rhythms and evocative melodies of Tinariwen live in Athens!