Tamikrest
Festival Theatre Featuring: Ousmane Ag Mossa – vocals, guitar, Aghaly Ag Mohamedine – djembe, percussion, vocals, Paul Salvagnac – rhythm guitar, vocals, Cheikh Ag Tiglia – bass guitar, slide guitar, acoustic guitar, vocals, Wonou Walet Sidati – vocals, Ag Ahmed Salim Ibrahim – drums, calabash Tuareg “desert blues” has been one of the most powerful trends in world music of recent years, mainly thanks to the career of the group Tinariwen, which won a Grammy Award last year. The style born of an amalgam of Tuareg melodies and psychedelic guitar music is closely tied to repeated outbreaks of civil war: the young members of Tamikrest, which was formed in 2006, came together as refugees in a camp near Kidal in northern Mali. Their name, which means “coalition”, can be understood both in the political sense and in terms of musical style, as their music can be heard to embrace the influence of Tinariwen alongside rock, rap and Arab pop. In 2008, the group received an invitation to the prestigious Festival in the Desert in Mali, where they met Chris Eckman, leader of American band The Walkabouts. The latter immediately “pounced” on them, on the one hand involving them on the album BKO by his side project Dirtmusic, on the other producing the band’s own albums Adagh and Toumastin. The enormous success of these two albums has very quickly elevated Tamikrest alongside Tinariwen, with which – as Andy Morgan, the latter’s long-time manager, wrote – “the future in desert blues began.”