Bombino - Deran - Niger - 2018

 

How to celebrate the desert at home, how to protect it, develop it, unify it, respect it and, above all, never forget it, are the main themes of Bombino's new album 'Deran'. They are dressed in ten songs of rare maturity and power that mark a turning point in the career of a guitarist and composer who was born in the shade of an acacia tree some fifty miles northwest of the ancient city of Agadez, and who has since promoted to the new guitar Tuareg Generation. It's a throwback to the source of everything that makes Bombino who he is.

"My mission for this album was always to get closer to Africa," he says. It is no surprise then that the decision has been made to record 'Deran' as close as possible to his native Niger in the south of the Sahara. The ideal location arose in the form of Studio Hiba, a high-flying recording facility owned by King Mohammed VI located in an industrial suburb of Casablanca in Morocco. There, Bombino and his long-term stable band - including Tuareg Illias Mohammed on guitar and vocals, American Corey Wilhelm on drums and percussion, and Mauritanian (who lives in Belgium) Youba Dia on bass - slept, ate and music in happy isolation. His circle was widened by Moroccan percussionist Hassan Krifa, and by Bombino's cousins ​​Anana ag Haroun (vocalist of the Brussels-based Tuareg band Kel Assouf) and Toulou Kiki (singer and star of the film Timbuktu), who came to add some 'gang' voices. After Casablanca, the tapes were flown to Boston to be embellished by friend and Sudanese keyboardist Mohammed Araki.

Bombino and the crew conjured up an itinerant journey through the mystery of contemporary Saharawi sounds, from the raw diesel rock of opener 'Imajghane' ('The Tuareg'), to the camel gait of 'Tenesse' ('Idleness'), the tender cadence of Midiwan ('My Friends') and the 'Tuareggae' style which is Bombino's only contribution to desert music in the song 'Tehigren'. The whole desert is there, hard and gentle, tragic and playful. But more than anything 'Deran' is honest and true. Deran, Deran, Alkheir. "My best wishes, my best wishes, for peace."

TRACKLIST

1. Imajghane

2. Deran Deran Alkheir

3. Tehigren

4. Mikiwan

5. Tenesse

6. Ouhlin

7. Adouni Dagh

8. Tamasheq

9. Takamba

10. Adouagh Chegren