Tamikrest: Adagh 2010 + Toumastin 2011 + Chatma 2013

 

Bridging the gap between African traditional music and American blues and rock influences,

Tamikrest are a group from the Western African nation of Mali. Tamikrest's sound speaks of a global perspective, but the group's lyrical message is a reflection of the violence and chaos that have been visited upon their homeland, and their profound desire for peace and unity.
                  

When Tamikrest was founded in 2006, the musicians were all in their early twenties. They originate from the region around Kidal, a city in northern Mali. Tamikrest (Tamashek for junction,

alliance, the future) is a group of musicians who belong to the Tuareg people. The band was founded in 2006 in Kidal, Mali. They mix traditional African music with Western rock and pop influences and sing in Tamashek. The main songwriter and leader of the band is Ousmane Ag Mossa. Their music is characterized by electric guitars and vocals, youyous, bass, drums, djembé and other percussion instruments.
                   

Tamikrest were founded by guitarist, songwriter, and vocalist Ousmane Ag Mossa, who as a member of

the Tuareg people of the Southern Sahara has faced discrimination and witnessed war in his hometown of Kidal nearly all his life. All of them visited the Les enfants de l'Adrar school in Tinzawaten, a small oasis in the middle of the desert, which was funded by European foundations.
                   

It was there that the future members of Tamikrest got their basic musical training. Their youth was shaped by the civil war that took place between 1990 and 1995. Many family members and

friends died while the Tuareg fought for their autonomy. When new riots broke out in 2006, Ousmane Ag Mossa and his friend Cheick Ag Tiglia decided not to fight with weapons, but to call attention to the Tuareg's cause with musical means. However, as Ag Mossa began soaking up influences from Western artists he discovered on well-worn cassettes or MP3s -- Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, and Mark Knopfler among them -- the group's style began to evolve.
              

In 2008, Tamikrest were invited to perform at a Malian music festival, Festival au Desert, where they crossed paths with a American-Australian group called Dirtmusic.  When Dirtmusic recorded their

second album, BKO, in a studio in Bamako (the capital of Mali) in 2010, Tamikrest were invited to play on that album. Chris Eckman (member of Dirtmusic and The Walkabouts) also produced Adagh, Tamikrest's first album. In 2010, both bands toured Europe together and played festivals like Sziget and Orange Blossom Special, the latter organized by their label Glitterhouse Records. In October 2010, Chris Eckman produced Tamikrest's second album Toumastin, which was released in April 2011.
                  

In 2013 they released Chatma (meaning "sisters," with the songs commenting on the travails of Tuareg

women). Chatma earned enthusiastic press in Europe and the U.K., and the group set out on more global touring in support; an appearance at the Burg Herzberg Festival in Alsfeld, Germany in August 1, 2014 was released as a live album, Taksera. In the summer of 2016, Tamikrest returned to the studio with producer Mark Mulholland to record their fourth studio album. Kidal, a concept album about Ousmane Ag Mossa's hometown, was released in March 2017.
                 

TUAREG PEOPLE

                   

The international community must not turn a deaf ear to the possible disappearance of a people like ours, the Touareg, which would be an immense loss to all humanity. The world today sees the

suffering of the Touareg, but few are the voices that speak out, or the ears that listen to our people who burn inside with the suffering of entire generations for more than half a century, thanks to the Balkanisation of their lands by nation states that they do not recognize, states which pursue a policy of discrimination against our people with the aim of wiping them out. The living conditions of people in the Sahara, who are poorer than ever, bears witness to this.
                  

The world must listen to the Touareg heart and help them to realise their vision, which is none other

than the following: The Touareg demand that the injustice of which they are all victims ceases forthwith, that what is ours by right be restored to us, that’s to say, our lands and the power to determine our own destiny. The Touareg want to live in freedom in their homeland and end of this form of colonisation, which has prevailed since fifty years, in other words, for far too long.
                    

TAMIKREST - ADAGH 2010

                     

Tamikrest means “crossing” in the language of the Kel Tamashek, a traditionally nomadic Saharan

people that are commonly referred to as the Tuaregs. It is an apt name for a band that so successfully merges the values of their timeless culture with the sounds and visions they have encountered on a headlong journey to the concert stages and ipods of the world.
                  

The term desert blues has become useful shorthand for those Touareg guitar bands from the Sahara

whose music is stripped down and bare. While it's certainly a catch-all phrase, it picks up on the similarities between the bands -- which are largely cultural -- while not allowing for their differences. Tamikrest, the youngest of the genre, also rock the hardest, with heavier bass and more oomph in their sound. In part that's due to using a producer whose life has been spent in rock bands (Chris Eckman of the Walkabouts and Dirtmusic), but it also reflects the ethos of the bandmembers themselves.
              

Tamikrest – Adagh
Label: Glitterhouse Records – GRCD 703
Format: CD, Album
Country: Europe
Released: Feb 22, 2010
Genre: Blues, Folk, World, & Country
Style: Ethnic
    
TRACKS

           

01. Outamachek    3:24
02. Aicha    4:18
03. Amidini    3:16
04. Tamiditin    3:37
05. Aratane N' Adagh    5:10
06. Tidite Tille    3:52
07. Tahoult    4:15
08. Alhoriya    3:26
09. Adagh    3:07
10. Adounia Mahegagh    3:30
11. Toumastin    4:24

LINE - UP

                        

               
Band [Tamikrest], Backing Vocals – Bassa Walette Abdamou, Fatma Walette Cheikhe
Band [Tamikrest], Bass, Backing Vocals – Cheikhe Ag Tigly
Band [Tamikrest], Percussion, Drums, Backing Vocals – Aghaly Ag Mohamadine
Band [Tamikrest], Rhythm Guitar [2nd Rhythm Guitar], Backing Vocals – Mossa Ag Ahmed
Band [Tamikrest], Rhythm Guitar, Backing Vocals – Mossa Ag Borayba
Band [Tamikrest], Vocals, Lead Guitar – Ousmane Ag Mossa
Calabash – Ibrahim Ahmed (Pino) (tracks: 7)
Organ – Chris Eckman (tracks: 5)
Percussion – Chris Eckman (tracks: 2)
Slide Guitar – Hugo Race (tracks: 11)

NOTES

Songwriter [Songs By] – Ousmane Ag Mossa
Producer – Chris Eckman (The Walkabouts)
Recorded at Studio Bogolan, Bamako, Mali, July 21 - 26, 2009

Flac Size: 249 MB

TAMIKREST - TOUMASTIN 2011

                      

It's certainly not all blues-like (the real similarity is in the fact they use electric guitars and a pentatonic

scale). You'd be hard-pressed to discover any blues in the beautiful space of "Dihad Tedoun Itran," while "Nak Akaline Tinza (Tinzaouatene)" is eerily like the Velvet Underground. The guitar work creates moods and shades that echo the distances of the desert, while the pace is that of the camel, never hurried. They might not be a rock & roll band (and why should they want to be?), but there's definitely a rock band that's part of Tamikrest on this second album.

                     
 

Tamikrest – Toumastin
Label: Glitterhouse Records – GRCD 721
Format: CD, Album
Country: Germany
Released: Apr 22, 2011
Genre: Blues, Folk, World, & Country
Style: Ethnic
    
TRACKS

                  

01. Tizarate    0:21
02. Fassous Tarahnet    4:57
03. Nak Amadjar Nidounia    4:07
04. Aratan N Tinariwen    3:45
05. Ayitma Madjam    3:28
06. Aidjan Adaky    5:01
07. Addektegh    2:42
08. Tarhamanine Assinegh    4:28
09. Nak Akaline Tinza (Tinzaouatene)    3:01
10. Tidit    4:15
11. Dihad Tedoun Itran    6:27

LINE - UP

                   

Backing Vocals – Bassa Wallet Abdamou, Wannou Wallet Sidaty
Bass, Slide Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Backing Vocals – Cheick Ag Tiglia
Booking [Touragengy] – Azimuth Productions
Djembe, Percussion, Backing Vocals – Aghaly Ag Mohamedine
Drums, Calabash – Ibrahim Ag Ahmed Salam
Rhythm Guitar, Backing Vocals – Mossa Ag Borreiba
Vocals, Guitar – Mahmoud Ag Ahmouden (tracks: 8, 10)
Vocals, Lead Guitar, Acoustic Guitar – Ousmane Ag Mossa
Written-By – Cheick Ag Tiglia (tracks: 7), Mahmoud Ag Ahmouden (tracks: 8, 10), Ousmane Ag Mossa (tracks: 1 to 7, 9, 11)

Musician [Additional Musicians], Backing Vocals – Fatma Wallet Cheick (tracks: 10)
Musician [Additional Musicians], Electric Guitar – Mossa Ag Ahmed (tracks: 9)
Musician [Additional Musicians], Keyboards – Chris Cacavas (tracks: 11)
Musician [Additional Musicians], Organ – Chris Eckman (tracks: 6, 7)
Musician [Additional Musicians], Percussion – Blaž Celarec (tracks: 4, 9, 11)
Musician [Additional Musicians], Trombone – Rok Stirn (tracks: 4)
Musician [Additional Musicians], Viola – Matjaž Sekne (tracks: 11)
Musician [Additional Musicians], Vocals – Fatma Wallet Cheick (tracks: 3, 5, 6, 7, 9)

NOTES

Recorded in Studio Bogolan, Bamako, Mali oct.20-30, 2010
Mixing and additional recording: Studio Zuma, Ljublijana, Slovenia

Flac Size: 305 MB

TAMIKREST - CHATMA 2013

                    

                     
These last years have been intensely vivid for Tamikrest, defined as they have been by both tragic sadness (families and friends turned refugees, the brutal imposition of Sharia law in their hometown) and collective growth (their musical dreams building one upon another).

Their new album “Chatma”, their third, deftly navigates these experiences and fashions them into a fully persuasive and poetic musical document. The album is filled with sober reflection, moral indignation, musical experimentation, cultural celebration and the kick of rock and roll. “Chatma” is also Tamikrest’s first album to be wholly written around a defined theme. In Tamashek “Chatma” means “Sisters” and the band has dedicated the album in their own words to: “the courage of the Tuareg women, who have ensured both their children's survival and the morals of their fathers and brothers.”
                      

Tamikrest – Chatma
Label: Glitterbeat – GBCD 007
Format: CD, Album
Country: Germany
Released: Sep 13, 2013
Genre: Rock, Blues, Folk, World, & Country
Style: Ethnic

TRACKS

                  

01. Tisnant An Chatma    4:51
02. Imanin Bas Zihoun    3:23
03. Itous    3:26
04. Achaka Achail Aynaian Daghchilan    4:11
05. Djanegh Etoumast    3:56
06. Assikal    4:48
07. Toumast Anlet    5:13
08. Takma    4:36
09. Adounia Tabarat    2:36
10. Timtar    4:53

LINE - UP

                     

Band [Tamikrest Are], Bass, Vocals – Cheick Tiglia
Band [Tamikrest Are], Djembe, Calabash, Vocals – Aghaly Ag Mohamedine
Band [Tamikrest Are], Drums [Drum Kit], Calabash – Ibrahim Ag Ahmed Salim
Band [Tamikrest Are], Guitar, Dobro – Paul Salvagnac
Band [Tamikrest Are], Vocals – Wonou Walet Sidati
Band [Tamikrest Are], Vocals, Guitar – Ousmane Ag Mossa
Drums, Percussion – Cedric "Momo" Maurel
Songwriter [All Songs By] – Ousmane Ag Mossa

NOTES

March-May 2013
Recording and mastering: Sono Studios, Nouzov, Czech Republic
Mixing: Studio Zuma, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Flac Size: 269 MB