Tinariwen are guitar-poets from the southern Sahara desert and icons of freedom and resistance among their own people, the nomadic Tuareg of the Sahara. Their back-story has been described as ‘dramatic’ (The Independent), ‘the most compelling of any band’ (Songlines) and ‘the most rock ’n’ roll of them all’ (The Irish Times). A long road has taken Tinariwen from the wild empty places of the Sahara to the concert stages of the world. The group’s founding members spent the 1980s in Libyan military camps, dreaming of dignity and self-determination for their people and singing songs for an entire generation of young Tuareg. Their rolling, yearning grooves and uncompromising messages of simplicity and freedom, distilled over many years of struggle, rebellion and exile, have brought them countless accolades and the attention of such high-profile fans as Robert Plant, Carlos Santana, Brian Eno, Damon Albarn, Chris Martin and Thom Yorke, as well as the enduring respect of their own people.
'Their stark style of Tuareg desert rock, its bony, whiplash guitar, its rolling, loping momentum, its skeletal handclaps and cracked sandpaper vocals, its dusty-foot poetry and lyrical explorations of awareness, longing and revolt have metaphorically conquered the world.'
– The Guardian
'The desert is my home. I’ve never been attracted by the idea of emigrating to Paris or Los Angeles. It’s in the desert that I feel that I belong. You have to live simply in the desert. It’s the only way. Simplicity is freedom.'
– Ibrahim Ag Alhabib
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