Imarhan's new album 'Aboogi' is out now.
For 20 years the Tuareg culture and music has fascinated the world. Their quasi-sacred poetic songs inspire western songwriters like Kurt Vile or José Gonzålez while the virtuosity of their guitar playing fascinates heroes like Jimmy Page, and the spirituality and meditative hypnotism impresses producers like Four Tet.
With two albums, Imarhan has become an emblem of the new Tuareg generation, breathing new life into âAssoufâ, the desert blues. While most Tuareg productions are exiled to the US, the group is part of their culture and their city, the capital of the Tuareg people, with an open door to the desert. By building their own studio in Tamanrasset Aboogi, Imarhan become the spokesmen of the Tuareg lost generation (forgotten by Algerian, Nigerian and Malian governments).
We speak about the link to nature, oppression, lost youth but also and especially about hope and struggle on sandy guitar riffs, bewitching choirs and poetic lyrics.