Tag: Imarhan

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Tinariwen Shares Breathtakingly Gorgeous “Sagherat Assan”

Pioneering Grammy Award-winning, Tuareg musical pioneers and JOVM mainstays Tinariwen just announced that their tenth studio album Hoggar is slated for a March 13, 2026 release through their own label, Wedge. The album derives itself from the Hoggar mountains, a defiant marker of presence visible for miles and a symbol of a homeland for displaced people.

Long known for being fierce advocates for their people’s nomadic culture that exists in the desert borderlands between Mail and Algeria, the acclaimed JOVM mainstays bluesy, guitar-driven music has found global acclaim for its blend of dexterous, Western rock-styled guitar work, Tamasheq language-driven political bent, syncopated rhythms and soaring melodies.

More than 45 years into their lengthy and storied career, Hoggar reportedly sees the acclaimed masters of the desert blues returning to the foundations of their sound with the band returning to their early years of songwriting with acoustic guitars and communal singing around the desert campfire. The album also sees the band staking their claim as elders of the Tuareg musical tradition while also passing the torch onto a younger generation of featured musicians, who can continue to keep their culture’s flame of rebellion and defiance alive.

Known for recording amid the windswept expanse of the Central Saharan desert, the acclaimed JOVM mainstays have long drawn inspiration from the rhythms of nature. With political unrest in Mali prompting the band to seek new spaces, the founding members, who are now based in Algeria recorded the album in studio set up by young Tuareg band and mentees Imarhan in Tamanrasset, which continues their legacy of innovation and collaboration.

While previously released albums like 2023’s Amatssou saw Tinariwen collaborating with acclaimed producer Daniel Lanois, on Hoggar the band looked closer to home. Gathering with the local Tuareg musical community for a month, founding members Ibrahim Ag Alhabib, Abdallah Ag Alhousseyni and Touhami Ag Alhassane began writing songs fueled by political unrest alongside young artists like Imarhan’s Iyad Moussa Ben Abderrahmane, Hicham Bouhasse  and Haiballah Akhamouk. The band also collaborated with Terekaft‘s Sanou Ag Hamed and Tinariwen co-founder Liya ag Abill, a.k.a. Diarra for the first time in 25 years.

The album also marks some other firsts: The band’s lead vocalist Ibrahim and Abdallah sing together for the first time in over 30 years, breaking their long-held tradition of each songwriting performing only their own compositions. And there’s a guest spot from acclaimed longtime fan José González.

Lyrically, Hoggar explores urgent and timely themes, addressing the social and political challenges facing the Tuareg people and northern Mali. The band continues their long tradition of bearing witness through their work, balancing the joy of their celebrated lie shows with reflections on community struggles, resilience and the need for cultural preservation.

Hoggar’s first single “Sagherat Assan,” is a gorgeous, soulful rendition of a traditional Sudanese song anchored around shimmering and expressive acoustic guitar, syncopated handclap-driven rhythm and yearning harmonies. The song also features mesmerizing, melismatic vocals from Sudanese artist Sulafa Elyas. Much like the bulk of the JOVM mainstays acclaimed work, at the core of “Sagherat Assan” is a deep sense of longing for the homeland — and a sense of responsibility of passing the culture onward to the next generation, before it disappears.

“Sagherat Assan” is a traditional song carried from Sudan to the Sahara, Japonais (one of the band founders who died in 2021) and I were in Al Kufrah (a city at the border between Sudan and Libya) in 1989, when I was beginning to learn the guitar,” the band’s Abdallah Ag Alhousseyni explains. “We met a musician who was playing this song and loved it so much that  Japonais learned it and began performing it again and again, allowing it to travel and endure. This version features Sulafa Elyas, an extraordinary Sudanese singer and oud player now living in exile in France.” 

“The female voice is very important in traditional Tuareg music but it is increasingly hard to find female singers today owing to restrictions placed on them being allowed to sing and train,” the band’s longtime collaborator and producer Patrick Votan adds. “We were lucky to find singers like Sulafa as well as Wonou Walet Sidati, who used to record and tour with Tinariwen in the past, and Nounou Kaola, who also feature on this album.”

The equally gorgeous, animated video by Axel Digoix features the band and their collaborators performing and recording the song in the expanse of the Sahara Desert as the sun sets and the stars come out. The video captures deep bonds of friendship and a passing of the torch to a younger generation.

Music Festivals by William Ruben Helms

Generally speaking, the music festival experience is pretty much the same — whether you’ve been to one or dozens of them, like myself. Reinvented last year, Pickathon redefines the music festival experience as an immersive choose-your-own-adventure experience, where attendees can discover music, arts and culture perfectly integrated into the natural wonders of Happy Valley, Oregon‘s Pendarvis Farm, located 16 miles outside of Portland.

Late last month, festival organizes announced that the 2023 edition will take place August 3, 2023-August 6, 2023, along with the festival’s music lineup. This year’s edition will continue the festival’s reputation for eclecticism and its ability to spot the next breakout band across a variety of genres while featuring: indie roots outfit Watchhouse, the legendary Lee Fields, alt-glam band Dehd, rising singer/songwriter Madison Cunningham, Zambian psych rockers W.I.T.C.H., Thee Sinseers, The Altons, the acclaimed Mailian artist Vieux Farka Touré, desert blues outfit Imarhan, rising bluegrass banjo and Venezuelan harp duo Larry & Joe, Bay Area African psych rock outfit Orchestra Gold, post-internet jazz project MonoNeon, the Native American powwow-meets-electroinc music-meets-Bon Ives-like soundscapes of Joe Rainey, Yot Club, Columbian psychedelic cumbia outfit Meridian Brothers, Peruvian electro pop group Novalima, Mexican punk rockers Sgt. Papers, acclaimed Canadian rapper TOBi, Tampa-based experimentalists They Hate Change and jazz funk outfit Butcher Brown.

As always country and honky tonk still holds a strong presence with acts like Nick Shoulders, The Kernal and Courtney Marie Andrews on the bill. Rising indie rock artists Wednesday, MJ Lenderman and Florist are also on the bill. The full lineup and festival playlist are below.

Pickathon 2023 Full Lineup

  • Watchouse
  • Lee Fields
  • Dehd
  • Madison Cunningham
  • Vieux Farka Touré
  • Florist
  • W.I.T.C.H.
  • Wednesday
  • MonoNeon
  • Ocie Elliott
  • Butcher Brown
  • Yot Club
  • Courtney Marie Andrews
  • Imarhan
  • Say She She
  • MJ Lenderman
  • Madison McFerrin
  • The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys
  • They Hate Change
    Andrew Marlin
  • Pachyman
  • Wine Lips 
  • Nikki Nair
  • GA-20
  • Nick Shoulders
  • Wayne Graham
  • Mike Dillon’s Punkadelic!
  • Rich Ruth
  • The Altons
  • Thee Sinseers
  • Novalima
  • Logan Ledger
  • Meridian Brothers
  • TOBi
  • Emily Nenni
  • Mikaela Davis 
  • Joe Rainey
  • Riddy Arman
  • The Mountain Grass Unit
  • The Kernal
  • Larry & Joe
  • Hooveriii
  • Gel
  • Jackie Venson
  • Nat Myers 
  • Allison de Groot & Tatiana Hargreaves
  • Sgt. Papers
  • Orchestra Gold
  • WHIMZ
  • Sprig of That
  • The Shivas
  • MØTRIK

“Reinventing Pickathon last year around the concept of integrating music, arts, and culture into the natural settings of Pendarvis Farm was an incredible endeavor,” Pickathon founder Dale Schoenborn says. “2023 not only presents our best lineup ever, but now we understand the new Pickathon Neighborhoods even better, and we’re excited to refine all the details to make this year our most immersive experience to date. I can’t wait for everyone to join us at Pendarvis Farm!”

Early bird tickets end today. Camping, parking, shuttles and everything else you need to get to the farm is on sale now, too. That information can be found here.


Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Imarhan Releases Hallucinogenic Visuals for the Funky Disco Groove-based single “Ehad Wa Dagh”

Comprised of Iyad Moussa “Sadam” Ben Abderahmane, Tahar Khaldi, Hicham Bouhasse, Abdelkader Ourzig and Haiballah Akhamouk, the Tamanrasset, Algeria-based quintet Imarhan formed back in 2008 and are among a newer generation of Tuareg musicians that haven’t fought in the armed conflicts that have devastated Saharan Africa over the past 3 or 4 decades. Unsurprisingly, the members of Imarhan have been mentored by members of the internationally renowned Tuareg collective Tinariwen, while developing their own reputation across both the Tuareg world and elsewhere for pairing the ancestral tamashek poetry and rhythms of their elders with the contemporary sounds that reflect their urban upbringings, listening to a wide variety of music from across the globe.
 
With the 2016 release of the Algerian quintet’s critically applauded, self-titled debut album, they quickly became a buzz-worthy act with a growing internationally recognized profile which found them opening for a number internationally renowned touring acts including Kurt Vile, the aforementioned Tinariwen, Songhoy Blues and Mdou Moctor at venues across the US, the European Union and China. Imarhan’s highly-anticipated sophomore album Temet officially drops today and the Patrick Votan and Eyadou Ag Leche-produced album derives its name from the Tamashek word for “connections,” — and interestingly enough, the album reportedly is meant as an urgent wake up call to the listener, reminding them (and us, of course) that we are all deeply connected and without unity and understanding, we will never solve the world’s most urgent and pressing problems — i.e., environmental destruction, inequality, racism, growing strife and conflict, etc. As the band’s Ben Abderahmane said in press notes some time ago, “People should love each other. They need to know each other, we need to know each other, everyone should get to know their neighbor. We need to have the same approach as our elders,” he continues. “You will stumble across an old man who knows the world and will hand down his knowledge to his children.”
 
Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site over the past few months, you may recall that the album’s first single “Azzaman” was a meditative, hypnotic yet subtly contemporary take on the region’s desert blues sound that nods at psych rock — while thematically the song focuses on the passing of time and the handing over of a heritage and traditions by each successive generation, and the importance of leaving the right legacy. But along with that, the song makes a point of connecting different cultures of mixing the old and the new in a sensible way. Temet‘s second single “Tamudre” consists of a hypnotic and downright propulsive groove, punctuated with layers of percussion (both drumming and handclaps), call and response vocals and some impressive guitar work. Naturally, the song manages to remind me quite a bit of Tinariwen’s “Sustanaqqam” and “Adounia Ti Chidjret” but with a loose, bluesy vibe.
 
Temet’s latest single “Ehad Wa Dagh” features a stomping, dance floor-friendly, trance inducing, disco-like groove paired with some incredibly dexterous guitar pyrotechnics, making the song a funky and bold modernization of the desert blues that finds the band retaining familiar elements — the call and response vocals and the propulsive rhythms.
 
Directed by Visions Particulières, the recently released neon colored video focuses on Tamanrasset’s nightlife with members of the band arriving at a local nightclub to play a show — throughout it’s an explosion of colors, lights, and superimposed footage of the band members playing over an overhead of Tamanrasset. It’s a fitting psychedelic stomp.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Live Footage: Imarhan Perform Album Single “Tamudre” in Upcoming Documentary on Taureg Life

Comprised of Iyad Moussa “Sadam” Ben Abderahmane, Tahar Khaldi, Hicham Bouhasse, Abdelkader Ourzig and Haiballah Akhamouk, the Tamanrasset, Algeria-based quintet Imarhan formed back in 2008 and are among a newer generation of Tuareg musicians, who have yet to fight in the conflicts that have devastated Saharan Africa over the past 3 or 4 decades. Interestingly, the band has been mentored by members of internationally renowned Tuareg collective Tinariwen, while developing a reputation across the Tuareg world and elsewhere for pairing the ancestral tamashek poetry and rhythms of their elders with the much more contemporary sounds that reflect their urban upbringings, listening to a wide variety of music from across the globe. 

With the 2016 release of the Algerian quintet’s critically applauded, self-titled debut album, they quickly became a buzz-worthy act with a growing internationally recognized profile that found them opening for a number internationally renowned touring acts including Kurt Vile, the aforementioned Tinariwen, Songhoy Blues and Mdou Moctor at venues across the US, the European Union and China. Building upon a growing profile, Imarhan’s forthcoming and highly-anticipated sophomore album Temet is slated for a February 23, 2018 release through City Slang Records — and the Patrick Votan and Eyadou Ag Leche-produced album derives its name from the Tamashek word for “connections,” which shouldn’t be surprising as the album reportedly is an urgent wake up call to the listener, meant to remind them that we are all deeply connected and without unity and understanding, that we will never be able to solve our world’s most urgent and pressing connections — i.e., environmental destruction, inequality, racism, growing strife and conflict, etc. As the band’s Ben Abderahmane said in press notes some time ago, “People should love each other. They need to know each other, we need to know each other, everyone should get to know their neighbor. We need to have the same approach as our elders,” he continues. “You will stumble across an old man who knows the world and will hand down his knowledge to his children.”

Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site over the past few months, you may recall that the album’s first single “Azzaman” was a meditative, hypnotic yet subtly contemporary take on the region’s desert blues sound that nods at psych rock — while thematically the song focuses on the passing of time and the handing over of a heritage and traditions by each successive generation, and the importance of leaving the right legacy. But along with that, the song makes a point of connecting different cultures of mixing the old and the new in a sensible way. Temet’s second single “Tamudre” consists of a hypnotic and downright propulsive groove, punctuated with layers of percussion (both drumming and handclaps), call and response vocals and some impressive guitar work. Naturally, the song manages to remind me quite a bit of Tinariwen’s “Sustanaqqam” and “Adounia Ti Chidjret” but with a loose, bluesy vibe. 

As for the recently released live footage, the Parisian, independent filmmaker Vincent Moon set out of Algeria earlier this year, equipped only with a camera. ‘I never ever film with an object in mind,” Moon explains in press notes. “It’s more about letting it go and let[ting] the object materialize by itself. Interestingly, in this case, wound up being the members of Imarhan, who at the time, were in the middle of working on the material, which would comprise Temet. Moon followed the band for two weeks, documenting hours of music, conversations and pictures in Tamanrasset and within the neighboring mountain ranges, specially the Assekrem (Tamashak for “World’s End”) within the larger Hoggar Mountains in Southern Algeria. The end result is an hour-long documentary film Children of Tam, which is a portrait of the band and of the Tuareg people, capturing these proud people in their daily lives — and interesting enough, the documentary features live footage of the band performing album single “Tamudre” in their hometown. 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Up-and-Coming Tuareg Band Imarhan Release Meditative Sounds and Visuals on Modern Taureg Life in “Azzaman”

Comprised of Iyad Moussa “Sadam” Ben Abderahmane, Tahar Khaldi, Hicham Bouhasse, Abdelkader Ourzig and Haiballah Akhamouk, the Tamanrasset, Algeria-based quintet Imarhan formed back in 2008 and while being among a newer generation of Tuareg musicians, who haven’t fought in the various conflicts that have devastated the region; however, since their formation, the band, which has been mentored by internationally renowned Tuareg act Tinariwen, has developed a reputation across the Tuareg world and elsewhere for pairing the ancestral tamashek poetry and traditional rhythms of their elders with contemporary sounds that reflect their urban upbringings, listening to a variety of music from around the globe. (Interestingly, the connection to Tinariwen is not just a generational one of acclaimed elders wanting to pass their wisdom on to the young, new breed; it’s actually familial, as Tinariwen’s Eyadou Ag Leche is Ben Abderahmane’s cousin.)
 
In fact, with the release of their 2016, critically applauded, self-titled debut album, the band quickly became a buzz-worthy act with a growing profile that found them opening for the likes of Kurt Vile, the aforementioned Tinariwen, Songhoy Blues and Mdou Moctor at venues across the US, the European Union and China. And building upon that growing profile, the band’s highly-anticipated sophomore effort Temek, derives its name from the Tamashek word for “connections” and the Patrick Votan and Eyadou Ag Leche-produced album, which was recorded earlier this year in Paris reportedly is a urgent wake up call to the listener, reminding them that we are all connected and that without unity, we will never be able to solve our world’s most pressing problems — i.e., environmental destruction, inequality, racism, growing strife and conflict, etc. As the band’s Ben Abderahmane says in press notes, “People should love each other. They need to know each other, we need to know each other, everyone should get to know their neighbor. We need to have the same approach as our elders,” he continues. “You will stumble across an old man who knows the world and will hand down his knowledge to his children.” But along with that message, the album finds the band pushing their sound to include elements of funk, disco and rock; in fact, the album’s first single “Azzaman” is a mediative and hypnotic yet subtly contemporary take on the region’s famed desert blues sound, as the song finds the band hinting at psych rock, thanks to some impressively blazing guitar work.
 
Directed by Visions Particulières and filmed in Algiers, Algeria, the recently released video for “Azzaman” offers an equally meditative glance at Tuareg life, pointing out that while some things are understandably different culturally and linguistically, we share much more similarities than we expect. After all, people struggling to get by daily with their dignity intact is universal; and in fact, if you were watching the video in mute, it wouldn’t be until you saw the street scenes that you’d notice anything wildly different. As the band explains, the video’s concept “is about the passing of time and the handing over of a heritage by each generation. It’s about the importance of leaving the right legacy. It’s also about connecting the cultures, the mixing of the old with the new. The video was shot in Algiers to reflect the meaning behind the song, it’s a big cosmopolitan city, an urban environment which culturally offers a lot yet it’s still a place in which we can keep on preserving some Tuareg ways of life.”