CD/LP/DL: https://goo.gl/jun6oW Digital: https://idol.lnk.to/Black_Tenere
Release date: 15 February 2019
Kel Assouf return with an even more transformative collection: Black Tenere. Produced by the band’s keyboardist Sofyann Ben Youssef, the mastermind behind the highly touted AMMAR 808, the new album strips things back to a power trio lineup and focuses on the crackling, forward-looking energy of Nigerien front man Anana Ag Haroun’s next level Kel Tamashek (Tuareg) rock songs.
Kel Assouf’s musical journey has flowed seamlessly from the well-spring created by Ishumar desert rock pioneers Tinariwen – that Haroun first encountered as a young musician in Niger – towards sonic horizons that include the rock classicism of groups like Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Queens of the Stone Age and the club beats and astral ambiance of European electronic music.
On Black Tenere, the band pushes these different textures and influences towards a persuasive, raw-edged crescendo. Ag Haroun see’s the path to the new album and its new sound this way: “my musical tastes didn’t change but they are expanding further thanks to my different encounters and my curiosity. Black Tenere is a rock album. it’s a choice to give a more original touch that builds up the identity of Kel Assouf and differentiates it from the other groups of Ishumar music. For me the music has to travel and it has to be open to other sounds so that everyone can listen to the messages it carries.”
The messages found in Ag Haroun’s lyrics are indeed potent, tragic and inspiring in their defiance. The struggle of the stateless Kel Tamashek (a name they prefer to the colonial moniker “Tuareg”) to maintain control of their ancestral lands, their dignity and their nomadic way of life, has only recently entered the fringes of Western consciousness.
This is not a band in search of a theme. Ag Haroun’s lyrical intentions on the album are clear and transparent. As he puts it, “Black Tenere talks about the Tamashek tragedy, its history since colonization until today, and the geopolitics that unfolds in the desert for its natural resources.” But infused into the sharp, unswerving social analysis and the calls for resistance, there is also the shimmer of nostalgia and a poetry of deep longing. The recognition that the very fabric of desert life is at stake and has possibly already been lost. The recordings brilliantly reflect the strong collective heart of the band – each musician supporting the album’s propulsive, hypnotic purposes – yet on many occasions stepping forward in thrilling ways.
Kel Assouf is a triangle of influences, cultural expressions and complex identities. Oliver Penu, a young jazz drummer from Belgium. Sofyann Ben Youssef, a renowned electronic producer and rock fan, born and raised in Tunisia. Anana Ag Haroun, a second generation Ishumar guitarist and singer-songwriter from Niger – living in Brussels, one of Europe’s most multi-ethnic capital cities. The band is a reflection of how contemporary music works and enriches us. In an era where borders are being redrawn and walls are being erected, Kel Assouf shows us other possibilities.
Kel Assouf: Impassioned and defiant. Wired and spectral. Boundless and innovative. Ishumar sonics 3.0