With the new visual, the Tuareg rock band announces new album Aboogi, due in 2022.
Over the course of their first two albums, Imarhan breathed new life into assouf, blues from the desert, which attracted new fans from all over the world. Following the exhilarating Temet, released in 2018, the band began building a recording studio, the first ever in their hometown of Tamanrasset, Algeria. Named Aboogi, after the first semi-permanent structures their nomadic ancestors built, this space became the recording location for Imarhan’s new album of the same name. “Achinkad” is the first single from the record.
Shot by the light of blazing fire, the musicians described the new video with the following: “It’s a tribute to our people and our land. The Tuareg have been around since ancient times and they are still here, present to their land, faithful to their people, grateful to their ancestors, to their culture, and fully, strongly attached to their nature.”
Here, Imarhan manipulates the rites and ancestral heritage of the Tuareg. “Aboogi reflects the colours of Tamanrasset, what we experience on a daily basis,” explains band leader Sadam. “We give space to the wind and natural energies, to the sun and the sand. We want to express their colours through music.” With sandy guitar riffs and haunting choruses, Imarhan sings the poetry of the great outdoors. It explores connections to nature, oppression, lost youth, but above all, the duality between hope and struggle.
Listen to “Achinkad” in our Songs of the Week playlist on Spotify and Deezer.
Aboogi by Imarhan, will be available on January 28, 2022.
