TAMIKREST - Assikel

Assouf in the tamasheq language implies nostalgia, a longing for a luminous past that has yet to return and perhaps never will — in short, total melancholy. Well, Tamikrest stake everything on the deep meaning of this synonym to animate the eight songs of "Assikel", sixth album of a career launched in 2010 with "Adagh" and pursued steadily over the past sixteen years, through records faithful to the so-called Tuareg blues, namely tishoumaren, of which, alongside the likes of Tinariwen, Bombino, Imarhan and, last but not least, the stratospheric Mdou Moctar, they are in fact among the boldest and, in a way, most celebrated exponents in Europe and around the world.

Recorded on analogue tape, with the band essentially playing every track live, "Assikel", which means "journey", once again aims to raise public awareness of the dire situation gripping Mali, where a military junta in power since 2021 has stripped away every possible right, despite the United Nations peacekeeping mission launched in 2023, with the population oppressed beyond belief by jihadists, and Malian and Russian mercenaries.

The record is once again steeped in electric and acoustic guitars intertwining candidly, weaving the typical blues of the Sahara, between folk-tinged ballads like the moonlit "Aiytma", written with poet Mahmoud Ag Ahmouden to call for resistance, and equally enveloping tracks like the opening "Adagh Oyanted", inspired by Mali's northern mountainous region with the aim of preventing future exploitation. And then there's "Imanin", which by contrast opens with a surprising synth from Belgian musician Wouter Van Asselbergh, foreshadowing a wild ride on camels enraged and thoroughly weary of trudging through so much bloodshed.

On the pastoral "Eillal", Ibrahim Ag Alhabib of the aforementioned Tinariwen also appears, in what is his first collaboration with his friends in Tamikrest, while the evocative "Adounia", suspended this time over angelic chords, pays tribute to the late Mohammed Ag Itlale (aka Japonais) of Tinariwen, mentor among others to Ousmane Ag Mossa, the band's longtime frontman, whose lineup also includes Cheikh Ag Tiglia (bass, backing vocals, acoustic guitar, djembe, percussion), Paul Salvagnac (electric guitar, lapsteel, dobro and tumba tumba) and Cédric Momo Maurel (calabash, dhol, bendhir, tumba tumba, djembe). It's an extremely delicate closing statement that makes it plain just how essential it is to let go of life's fleeting things in order to embrace what truly matters, ending with a home recording of Japonais reciting one of his poems. A fitting curtain call for a work that in some ways differs from its predecessors, being more measured and "considered", as visceral musically as it is evangelical in delivering a message of peace that has never felt so necessary.

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12/07/2026