Tinariwen (meaning “desert”) is a collective of Tuareg musicians from the Sahara region of northern Mali. The group was founded by Ibrahim Ag Alhabib; he and bandmates Alhassane Ag Touhami and Abdallah Ag Alhousseyni have all been present since 1979. Tinariwen first started to gain a following outside the Sahara region in 2001 with the release of the album The Radio Tisdas Sessions.
Tinariwen’s sound is primarily guitar-driven, in the style known as assouf among the Tuareg people. The group’s guitar style has its roots in West African music and other traditional styles practiced by the Tuareg and Berber peoples, and has often been characterized as “desert blues”. Tinariwen was also influenced by traditional Malian musicians, most notably Ali Farka Toure, and regional pop singers like Rabah Driassa. While the Tinariwen style is possibly a distant relative of blues music, via West African music, members of Tinariwen claim to have never heard actual American blues music until they began to travel internationally in the early 2000s. Tinariwen was also influenced by American and British rock acts whose bootlegged albums had made it to the Sahara region, such as Dire Straits, Santana, Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, and Jimi Hendrix.
Since 2001 Tinariwen have toured regularly in Europe, North America, Asia, and Australia. Also since 2001 the collective has added several younger Tuareg musicians who did not live through the military conflicts experienced by the older members but have contributed to the collective’s multi-generational evolution. Newer members include bassist Eyadou Ag Leche, percussionist Said Ag Ayad, guitarist Elaga Ag Hamid, and guitarist Abdallah Ag Lamida.
Their 2004 album Amassakoul (“The Traveller” in Tamashek) and their 2007 album Aman Iman (“Water Is Life”) were released worldwide and gained the notice of celebrity fans and members of TV on the Radio. In 2005, Tinariwen received a BBC Award for World Music, and in 2008 they received Germany’s prestigious Praetorius Music Prize. The band’s 2009 album Imidiwan Companions was recorded in a mobile studio by Jean-Paul Romann in Tessalit. The band appeared at the Glastonbury Festival in 2009. The group has been nominated for Grammy Awards three times, and their 2012 album Tassili won the award for Best World Music Album in 2012.
Their eighth album, Amadjar, was recorded outdoors with mobile equipment near Nouakchott, Mauritania and was released in 2019. Amadjar featured guest appearances by Noura Mint Seymali, Micah Nelson, Cass McCombs, Stephen O’Malley, and Warren Ellis. In 2022, Tinariwen began a project to reissue several of their earlier albums in new formats; the first such release was the album Kel Tinariwen, which collects several of the group’s early recordings from the 1990s. Their ninth album, Amatssou, was produced by Daniel Lanois and was released in May 2023. Another world tour included a performance at the Glastonbury Festival.
