Released 29/08/2011
Featuring some intriguing collaborations with TV on the Radio and Nels Cline of Wilco, the album sees them setting the electric guitar to one side and giving pride of place to acoustic sounds,recorded right in the heart of the desert. Forced to record their new album far from their base in Tessalit northern Mali (where many of their previous albums were recorded), which is now deemed too insecure for outsiders to visit, Tinariwen converged in the deserts of southern Algeria, near the town of Djanet, in a protected region called the Tassili N'Ajjer, in late 2010 to begin work on the 11-track record. The place has historical significance for these old rebels. Back in the days of migration and rebellion it served as a refuge on the road to the Libyan training camps. It was in this lunar landscape of white sand, rocky outcrops that musicians and technicians gathered between November and December 2010, under a Mauritanian tent, with 400 kilos of gear to begin recording. In this natural open space it was decided to approach the sessions in an unorthodox manner and, unlike the way it's done in most studios, let the musicians give their inspiration free rein during seemingly endless sessions around the campfire. It took three weeks to gather all the songs on Tassili. Some are recent. Others have been dug up out of a much older, even traditional, repertoire. Out in the desert, the contributions of the two musicians and later additions by guitarist Nels Cline and the horns of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, recorded in their home-town of New Orleans, give Tassili the character of an album which reaches deep into the essence of Tinariwen's art whilst simultaneously opening itself out to the wider world.
Disc 1: Imidiwan Ma Tennam Asuf D Alwa Tenere Taqqim Tossam Ya Messinagh Walla Illa Tameyawt Imidiwan Win Sahara Tamiditin Tan Ufrawan Aden Osamnat Tenidagh Hegh Djeredjere Iswegh Attay
Disc 2: Djegh Ishilan El Huria Telitwar Kud Edazamin Nak Ezzaragh