Assàwt is the latest track revealed from Tinariwen‘s forthcoming new album Elwan (‘The Elephants’) which is released 10th February via ANTI-. The album has been shaped by the band’s exile from their homeland, a Saharan mountain range between north-eastern Mali and southern Algeria which is now a conflict zone. The cover, which depicts the band wandering over sand dunes, takes on that feeling of nostalgia with the knowledge that the band recorded the album in two sittings, the first was far away from their homeland.
The first tracks were made back in 2014 at Rancho de la Luna Studios in the desert of California’s Joshua Tree National Park. There they were joined by the likes of guitarist Matt Sweeny (Johnny Cash, Bonnie Prince Billy and Cat Power), Kurt Vile, Mark Lanegan and more. Two years later the band recorded closer to home in M’Hamid El Ghizlane, an oasis in southern Morocco, near the Algerian frontier. With their tents set up and ready to record they were accompanied by the local musical youth and a Ganga outfit (a group of Berber ‘gnawa’ trance musicians).
Elwan is released on 10th February