A little less than a year ago, Grammy Award-winning Tuareg Band Tinariwen recorded its first live album in Paris “Oukis N’Asuf” (roughly translated as “Losing the Blues), performed alongside Lalla Badi, the 75-year-old ‘grand dame’ of Tamashek culture. a woman who mentored many Tuareg musicians in Mali, and helped inspire Tinariwen, founded by Ibrahim ag Alhabib in 1979,
This week finally sees the release of the album just after few days of the terrorist attacks in Paris, the band has issued this statement: “Today is released our first live album, Oukis N’Asuf, recorded at the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord on December 13th, 2014 in Paris. It’s in Paris, at the Bataclan where we played on April 7th, 2007. Our friend Robert Plant joined us on stage, it’s one of our best memories as musicians. We’re all touched by this tragedy because it affects our friends, music, freedom, values that Tinariwen has defended for almost 30 years…”
