Dire Straits in the Sahara

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I first wrote about Dire Straits popularity in the Sahara back in 2009 and later advised for an article in Africa is a Country. Though I’ve found lots of mp3s of “Sultans of Swing” on cellphone memory cards, and old cassettes buried in record stores, this was the extent of it. Tuareg guitar is fixedly pentatonic, and although every musician claimed to love the band, I never heard anyone in the Sahara playing their songs. Until now.

The video features Nadi Band (arabic: ???? ???), a rock band from Tripoli (video sourced from Libyan music aficionado Adel Alzyani), playing a cover of “Sultans.” Recorded back in 1995, it gives more evidence to Mark Knopfler and the gangs popularity. It’s generally understood that Gaddafi’s rule was not kind to the guitar, but this may of eased up in the 1980s – with a number of successful rock bands and a flourishing “reggae” scene.

While Nadi Band are all Libyan, it was in exile that Tuareg musicians first picked up the guitar. It was most likely under Gaddafi’s rule that Dire Straits found a foothold, before crossing the desert bound for Mali.

Note: I wrote to Mark Knopfler’s managment about coming to the Sahara. I’m still waiting to hear back.

Field Recordings from the Sahel

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I recently put together this compilation entitled “Field Recordings from the Sahel.” It’s what it says on the tin. Since the inception of this blog (way back in 2009), field recording has been at the core. The term gets thrown around a lot. While much the content in our records could be considered so, they are foremost musical recordings that have been captured with a single microphone, in one take, and aim to present the music as it sounded at the occasion.

This compilation is a bit different from the label content. The recordings here are varied: ambient soundscapes of an early morning in Timbouctou, a prayer call in rural Mauritania, late night radio broadcasts of Wolof griots. A lot of what’s here has been featured on this blog over the years – the result of traveling with a sound recorder ready to be deployed at a moment’s notice.

Moving from blog to “record label,” the Sahel Sounds project has focused primarily on music to transmit information and commercial records to finance the work (my own research and musicial careers of our partners in W. Africa). In addition to the music, I’ve tried to use the records as opportunities to provide a little more context, using them to translate Tamashek poetry, support visual artists in Bamako, or create transcultural genre experimentation. Nevertheless, it’s refreshing to step outside of the “label” context to create work not bound by the particulars of the vinyl record market.

The compilation is available streaming + with free download from bandcamp. In addition to the compilation, I produced a short book “Folktales from the Sahel,” – a collection of stories, myth, and urban legends, collected on the past decade of travel.

Enjoy.

Troupe Ecole Tudu

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Tudu

I first came upon this cassette at Djadje’s market stall at the Grand Marché in Niamey in 2014. The tapes were not for sale (Djadje sells dubbed copies) so I spent the good part of a day sitting on a wooden bench in the crowded market, digitizing with a cheap walkman and ZOOM. The results weren’t pretty. Someone’s cellphone, probably my own, was sending radio interference, and the tape was distorted with staccato noise. When I heard it, I was already thousands of miles away. A few months ago, while back in Niamey, I did like any good video store patron in 1993 and left a friend’s driving license and a hefy non-refundable deposit. We brought the tape to France, digitized it, and returned it to Djadje in a months’ time.

 

Djadje was surprised to see the tape again. And for good reason. The tape is rare, the only copy I’ve ever seen. The recording comes from a school group from the village of Tudu, in the region of Agadez, led by a guitarist and professor Barmo. The style that would become a popular in Niger throughout the 1980s and 90s, with many similar schoolgirl groups, like the one in Tchirou (and what would go on to form the basis and genre of Sogha Niger). The guitar playing is minimal, recalling early Ali Farka Touré, answering and mimicking the lilt of the song.

The cassette also stands out with the mysterious logo and catalog number – “HASADA” – maybe something only I would obsess over. But the only other cassette from the label I’ve found was Mamman Sani’s first and signature recording that went on to become the re-release La Musique Electronique du Niger. Rumour has it that Hasada was from Nigeria, and made a few of these tapes to distribute around Niamey. He had a good ear, whoever he was.

The track here “Owiya” refers to the Tuareg greeting “O-wi-yan.” It’s an old song, from the colonial years, and implores parents to send their children to school. The performance on this tape is some 30 years later, somtimes in the 1980s, but the message is the same. And it makes a convincing argument for education, if it can turn out music like this.

I’ve reached out to Barmo and some of the surving members of the Troupe and will share more as I find out.

Les Filles de Illighadad Tour 2018

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Les Filles de Illighadad Tour 2018
Les Filles de Illighadad are back on tour for 2018. Check out full dates below, across the EU + onto the Réunion Islands. They’ll be joined for the first time with Amariam Ahmed, guitarist from Agadez (profiled here back in 2014). You can stay up to date on the tour via the FB page.

1 Feb – Mousonturm – Frankfurt D
3 Feb – Roter Salon – Berlin D
8 Feb – Festival Hors Pistes – Annecy FR
9 Feb – Generiq Festival – Dijon FR
10 Feb – Generiq Festival  – Belfort FR
11 Feb – La Maroquinerie  – Paris FR
13 Feb – La Coope – Clermont Ferrand FR
14 Feb – Le 106 – Rouen FR
15 Feb – Stereolux  – Nantes FR
16 Feb – La Sirène  – La Rochelle FR
17 Feb – L’Astrolabe  – Orleans FR
20 Feb – Kabardock – Le Port Reunion
22 Feb – Le Zinzin – Grand Bois Reunion
23 Feb – Le Bisik  – Saint Benoit Reunion
24 Feb – L’Auditorium De La Médiathèque Tampon  – Reunion
25 Feb – Théatre Sous Les Arbres – Le Port Reunion
28 Feb – Kafe Antzokia – Bilbao Spain
1 Mar – Lata De Zinc – Oviedo Spain
2 Mar – Radar Estudio – Vigo Spain
3 Mar – Putzuzulo Gaztetxea – Zarautz Spain
4 Mar – Centro Civica Delicias  – Zaragoza Spain
5 Mar – Sala X  – Seville Spain
6 Mar – Sufre  – Valencia Spain
7 Mar – Centro Benito Moliner  – Huesca Spain
8 Mar – Artte  – Barcelona Spain
9 Mar – Cafe Berlin  – Madrid Spain
10 Mar – Teatro  – Espinho Portugal
11 Mar – ZDB  – Lisbon Portugal

Radio Niger with a little distortion

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radio niger


Happy 2017, and onto a new year.

Stumbled across this beautiful piece of technology in Niamey last month. The masons were busy working on a friends house, and the distorted wail was amplified by the concrete room that was slowly being constructed around it. The mason informed me that the music was “Pulaar” – the instrument here being amplified molo. There are curious levels of distortion, all layered, from the initial amplification and blown out speakers, to the cellphone recording capturing device, to the AUX in on the cheapo bootleg stereo (of the ever popular X-BASS brand so common in W. Africa).

Apologies for the silence, more coming soon.