Name: Elwan
Brand: Tinariwen

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

wedgecd00117

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Colour

Colour details

Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

Format Music GB

Limited edition

Release date

2017-02-10

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier GB

PIAS

Tax rate GB

Standard:20

UPC / Barcode

5414939949043

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Total Cap

1 / CD / Extended format: No / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

Artist

Tinariwen

Genre GB

African

Label GB

Wedge

Tinariwen is a Tuareg group formed in 1982. They identify as Tuareg and reject the borders that separate Algeria and Mali, considering them products of colonialism. Their music blends blues, rock, and traditional Tuareg styles.

The band's name, "Tinariwen," translates to "empty place" in the language of the Saharan desert Berbers. Some of their album artwork features symbols resembling "+10:1" or "+IO:I." These symbols are actually the band's name written in Tifinagh script.

Experience the unique sound of Tinariwen as they take you on a musical journey through their rich cultural heritage.

The new album Elwan by Tinariwen could well have been called Exile on Main Street. Others have already thought of that, but the idea is apt. In recent years, Tinariwen’s homeland, a Saharan mountain range between north-eastern Mali and southern Algeria, has been transformed into a conflict zone. While the songs on the new record evoke those cherished deserts of home, they were recorded a long way away in two distinctive bursts. In 2014 the band stopped at Rancho de la Luna studios in the desert of California’s Joshua Tree National Park. While location proved particularly propitious in terms of creativity, the human climate was just as favorable, as musicians dropped by to add their own touch. Guitarist Matt Sweeny (Johnny Cash, Bonnie Prince Billy and Cat Power), Kurt Vile, musician Alan Johannes, who produced Queens of the Stone Age. All of it honed by engineer Andrew Schepps, who has worked with the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Johny Cash, and Jay Z. Two years later in M’Hamid El Ghizlane, an oasis in southern Morocco, near the Algerian frontier, the band set up their tents to record, accompanied by the local musical youth and a Ganga outfit (a group of Berber ‘gnawa’ trance musicians). The resulting album is called Elwan (‘The Elephants’), not Exile On Main Street, though it fits nicely into that ‘road record’ category.

2LP - Heavyweight double LP with etching on Side 4. Vinyl format also includes a copy of the album on CD. 

Elwan

Music GB