Tinariwen Announce New Album ‘Hoggar’: Hear “Sagherat Assani”

Tuareg desert blues greats Tinariwen have been making mind-expanding guitar music for decades; they’re an institution. In a few months, they’ll follow their 2023 album Amatssou with a new LP called Hoggar. They’ll also tour the world, but they can’t play North America because of the current travel ban in place in the US.

According to a press release, the new record Hoggar returns Tinariwen to their ’70s roots, when the nomadic band members would write together on acoustic guitars while sitting at campfires. The band recorded in Algeria, where they’re currently based after leaving Mali because of political unrest. The new LP features a bunch of collaborators, some from the Tuareg blues tradition and some not. Swedish singer-songwriter José González, a longtime Tinariwen fan, shows up on one track.

The lead single from Hoggar is Tinariwen’s version of the traditional Sudanese song “Sagherat Assani,” and it’s got vocals from the Sudanese singer Sulafa Elyas. In a press release, Tinariwen’s Abdallah Ag Alhousseyni has this to say about it:

“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. 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.

Below, check out the animated “Sagherat Assani” video from director Axel Digoix, as well as the Hoggar tracklist and Tinariwen’s upcoming European tour dates.

TRACKLIST:
01 “Amidinim Ehaf Solan”
02 “Imidiwan Takyadam” (feat. José González)
03 “Erghad Afewo”
04 “Tad Adounya”
05 “Asstaghfero Allah”
06 “”Sagherat Assani” (feat. Sulafa Elyas)
07 “N’ak Tenere Iyat”
08 “Amidinin Wadar Nohar”
09 “Khay Erilan”
10 “Dounia Tau Ray”
11 “Aba Malik”

TOUR DATES:
4/10 – Seignosse, France @ Le Tube
4/13 – Porto, Portugal @ Casa da Música
4/14 – Lisbon, Portugal @ Lisboa Ao Vivo
4/16 – Madrid, Spain @ Sala But
4/17 – Barcelona, Spain @ La Paloma
4/18 – Nîmes, France @ Paloma
4/20 – Milan, Italy @ Alcatraz
4/21 – Rome, Italy @ Auditorium Parco della Musica
4/22 – Padua, Italy @ Hall
4/24 – Prague, Czech Republic @ Palác Akropolis
4/25 – Vienna, Austria @ Arena
4/26 – Budapest, Hungary @ Akvárium Klub
4/28 – Krakow, Poland @ Klub Studio
4/29 – Warsaw, Poland @ Progresja
4/30 – Berlin, Germany @ Huxley’s Neue Welt
5/05 – Brussels, Belgium @ Ancienne Belgique
5/07 – Utrecht, Netherland @ TivoliVredenburg
5/08 – Paris, France @ Cirque d’Hiver
5/11 – Rennes, France @ Le MeM
5/12 – Toulouse, France @ Le Bikini
5/13 – Bordeaux, France @ Rocher de Palmer
5/15 – Sofia, Bulgaria @ Hall 3, NDK
5/16 – Athens, Greece @ Floyd
5/18 – London, UK @ O2 Forum Kentish Town
5/19 – Gateshead, UK @ The Glasshouse
5/21 – Edinburgh, UK @ Assembly Rooms
5/22 – Manchester, UK @ O2 Ritz
5/24 – Bristol, UK @ Electric Bristol
5/25 – Dublin, Ireland @ 3Olympia Theatre
5/27 – DCopenhagen, Denmark @ R Koncerthuset
5/28 – Oslo, Norway @ Rockefeller

Hoggar is out 3/13 on Tinariwen’s own Wedge label.