From Tombouctou/Timbuktu, Northern Mali, Al Bilali Soudan is an extended family of musicians and craftsmen who for generations have been sought after artists and griots. Masters of the quintessentially Tamasheq music style of the tehardant shaped by a continuous exchange between three-stringed traditional instruments and a relentless percussive calabash rhythm.

Led by Abellow Yattara, among the group’s influences are Ahmoudou Ag Intalokete, Abellow Yattara’s father, and Agou Keina, his uncle and a key member of the group Le Mali des Sables. This music has been performed from at least the 16th century by Touareg griots to celebrate the change of seasons, to encourage warriors and to welcome them back from battle. 

As Robert Christgau wrote in September 2021: "If you like desert music enough to suspect you've heard it before, you haven't--Tinariwen are showbiz by comparison, Tamikrest urbane, Tartit cute. And should you instead suspect that this noisy, indelicate stuff is the roughest African music ever recorded, that's because you haven't heard their 2012 debut."

SoundCloud

Photo credit: Chris Nolan