
Sahel Sounds
Etran De L'Air - Agadez
Regular price £23.00 Save £-23.00Product Description
-
Etran
de
L’Aïr
(or
“stars
of
the
Aïr
region”)
welcomes
you
to
Agadez,
the
capital
city
of
Saharan
rock.
Playing
for
over
25
years,
Etran
has
emerged
as
stars
of
the
local
wedding
circuit.
Beloved
for
their
dynamic
repertoire
of
hypnotic
solos
and
sun
schlazed
melodies,
Etran
stakes
out
a
place
for
Agadez
guitar
music.
Playing
a
sound
that
invokes
the
desert
metropolis,
Agadez
celebrates
the
sounds
of
all
the
dynamism
of
a
hometown
wedding.
Etran
is
a
family
band
composed
of
brothers
and
cousins,
all
born
and
raised
in
the
small
neighborhood
of
Abalane,
just
in
the
shadow
of
the
grand
mosque.
Sons
of
nomadic
families
that
settled
here
in
the
1970s
fleeing
the
droughts,
they
all
grew
up
in
Agadez.
The
band
was
formed
in
1995
when
current
band
leader
Moussa
“Abindi”
Ibra
was
only
9
years
old.
“We
only
had
one
acoustic
guitar,”
he
explains,
“and
for
percussion,
we
hit
a
calabash
with
a
sandal."
Over
the
decades,
the
band
painstakingly
pieced
together
gear
to
form
their
band
and
built
an
audience
by
playing
everywhere,
for
everyone.
“It
was
difficult.
We
would
walk
to
gigs
by
foot,
lugging
all
our
equipment,
carrying
a
small
PA
and
guitars
on
our
backs,
25
kilometers
into
the
bush,
to
play
for
free…there’s
nowhere
in
Agadez
we
haven’t
played.”
Whereas
other
Tuareg
guitarists
look
to
Western
rock,
Etran
de
L’Aïr
play
in
a
pan-African
style
that
is
emblematic
of
their
hometown,
citing
a
myriad
of
cultural
influences,
from
Northern
Malian
blues,
Hausa
bar
bands,
to
Congolese
Soukous.
It’s
perhaps
this
quality
that
makes
them
so
beloved
in
Agadez.
“We
play
for
the
Tuareg,
the
Toubou,
the
Zarma,
the
Hausa,”
Abindi
explains.
“When
you
invite
us,
we
come
and
play.”
Their
music
is
rooted
in
celebration,
and
invokes
the
exuberance
of
an
Agadez
wedding,
with
an
overwhelming
abundance
of
guitars,
as
simultaneous
solos
playfully
pass
over
one
another
with
a
restrained
precision,
forceful
yet
never
overindulgent.
Also
Available
From
Etran
De
L'Aïr:
No.
1
LP
/
CD.
Tracks:
1.
Imouwizla
2.
Toubouk
Ine
Chihoussay
3.
Nak
Deranine
4.
Tchingolene
5.
Nak
Igley
Ismadarana
6.
Tahawerte
Ine
Idinette
7.
Alhaire
8.
Adounia
9.
Karade
Marhane
10.
Tarha
Warghey
Ichile
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