The Ironworks, Inverness, 27 March 2007

Tinariwen.

FROM the first soulful introduction, Tinariwen had the audience in their hands, and by the end of the evening on their feet for a standing ovation and rapturous applause.

The band’s style of Saharan “Desert Blues” combines their native Touareg musical traditions with Western and Arabic styles in a way which is haunting, hypnotic, infectious, joyful and downright funky.

The fusion of human voice, percussion and electric guitars in this eight piece band weaves familiar and unfamiliar sound in a way that has made indigenous music in the Tamashek language conquer the mainstream.

The band first came to world attention in 2001 in their native Mali at Le Festival au Désert, and have since performed at WOMAD, Reading, the Cambridge Folk Festival, Finger Lakes Grassroots Festival in Trumansburg, New York, the Roskilde Festival, Denmark, UK African Soul Rebel Tour and Live 8 “Africa Calling” at the Eden Project in Cornwall.

Tinariwen recently released their third album, “Aman Iman” (Water is Life), to worldwide acclaim.

The story of the band is remarkable and living proof that the guitar is mightier than the gun. Fighting a guerrilla war as part of the Touareg rebellion the band formed in 1982 in the Moanmmar al-Qaidhafis camps.

Originally recorded on cassette, their music was banned by the government of Mali. A documentary screened in Europe early this year “Teshumara – The guitars of the revolution” describes the role of the group in fighting for the freedom of the Touareg people.

War and exile have shaped the recent history of the nomadic Saharan tribe and are reflected in the evocative nature of the music and its lyrics. However rhythm persists in a drumbeat that reaches down into your chest and pulses with life.

Blues guitar rifts that western audiences will audibly connect to the familiar sounds of Carlos Santana and John Lee Hooker entwine effortlessly with “rolling camel gait rhythms”, Arabic dance and the earthy harmonics of voices in unison.

It is music that is impossible not to move, clap and sway to, and the area immediately in front of the stage at the Ironworks became an impromptu dance floor.

It is not often that an Inverness audience has the opportunity to lose itself in the rhythms of world music. Perhaps Eden Court and the Scottish Arts Council’s Tune Up programme will facilitate performances on a more regular basis from groups of this calibre in the North. As the Ironworks audience warmly and enthusiastically demonstrated, there is an audience for all kinds of music in the Highland capital.

© Georgina Coburn, 2007

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