The famous Tamashek group Tinariwen offers a reissue of their first album Kel Tinariwen, originally released on cassette in 1991 and produced by Keltoum Sennhauser.
We no longer need to introduce you to Tinariwen, the formidable Malian group, yet some of their first recordings have fallen into oblivion, including their very first: a cassette entitled Kel Tinariwen. The album was recorded by Abdallah Ag Alhousseyni, Hassan Ag Touhami aka ‘Abin Abin’, Kedou Ag Ossad and Liya Ag Ablil aka ‘Diarra’, in Abidjan in the early summer of 1991. Kel Tinariwen was also produced by Keltoum Sennhauser, painter, poet and songwriter. Daughter of a Songhai father and a Tuareg mother, Keltoum Sennhauser grew up in Bamako and in the Kidal region in northeast Mali, where the members of Tinariwen live.
His involvement was decisive in the realization of Kel Tinariwen. Like the members of the group, she is steeped in the battles led by the Tuaregs (Arabic name for the Kel tamachek) for more freedom, even for self-determination. Indeed, since the end of the first Tuareg rebellion, which occurred between 1962 and 1964, only two years following the independence of Mali, the Saharan regions where the Tuareg live are placed under a severe and repressive military administration. This leads to departures to neighboring countries such as Libya and Algeria. The drought that followed first in 1972 and later in 1984 further accentuated this phenomenon to make it an exodus. Keltoum Sennhauser and his family, who lived in these regions, are forced to emigrate. Sennhauser saw in music a powerful tool to tell the struggles of the Tuaregs, especially through cassettes:
“I think the tape played a crucial role as a communication tool, a tool that was very dear to us. It made it possible to raise awareness and awaken the consciences of those who thought that all was already lost, or that we did not have the means to win our fight. It allowed the Tuareg world to develop its own consciousness and move forward. In our environment, the only thing that can make us question ourselves is music. Because we listen to a lot of music, we love music, we love poetry. We don’t read. We are not a people who read. So the only reading we have, regarding ourselves and the outside world, is music. »
Kel Tinariwen Unfortunately, it will never be broadcast outside the local community which exchanged tapes in 1992. A situation that is in the process of being resolved. The disc reveals another facet of Tinariwen’s sounds, which should delight diggers. We do not quite find the characteristic sound of Tinariwen as it is today. However, we can hear their famous hypnotic guitar lines, which accompany the song constructed in the manner call and responseas well as drum machines and synthetic melodies.
Kel Tinariwen sort 4 November via Wedge.
