Tinariwen: Aman Iman (Water is Life)

Tinariwen
Aman Iman (Water is Life)
World Village; 2007

This is going to be a relatively short review, and for that I apologize in advance. Most importantly, this is music that speaks for itself. Much less important is the fact that today is the nicest, warmest day we've had yet this year, and I intend to enjoy the remainder of it outdoors.

Tinariwen are one of the most successful African music groups of all time. They are a collective of musicians and singers spread across five north African countries, most of whom were displaced by conflict from their homes in the Sahara Desert region of northern Mali. They formed in a refugee camp in Libya around 1979. Ethnic Touaregs, their people are semi-nomadic, and in their native tongue of Tamashek, Tinariwen means "deserts," or "empty places."

It's an appropriate name. Their music evokes desert imagery in every sense. Tinariwen's music has often been described as "desert guitar," and this seems like an appropriate classification. Their sound is a mix between the modern and the very old, blending traditional Touareg rhythms with electric guitars and a sometimes bluesy feel. But even their guitar style dates back to the traditional styles of west Africa. Driving the rhythm section, and twisting like a snake through almost every track, is the pulse of the traditional Tinde drum.

Aman Iman is among Tinariwen's best selling albums worldwide. It is an album that simply rocks. It will make you want to weep, it will hypnotize you, and it will make you want dance. The guitar brings to mind great American blues artists, and others like Jimmy Hendrix and Led Zeppelin. The rhythms are extremely complex, with lots of hand clapping and winding percussion. The singer's voice expresses both unknowable heartbreak and elation, and Tinariwen's lyrics, albeit sung in a beautiful but unfamiliar language, are very much in common with American blues singers: themes of loss, suffering, love and anguish. The album's opening track, "Cler Achel," ("I Spent the Day") a song of displaced peoples and lost love, contains the words, "You've gone, Mila, you've already gone and I've plunged deeper into my dreams/ Whatever my thoughts, she occupies them all, and my heart cries out still." My personal favorite track, "Matadjem Yinmixan" ("Why All This Hate Between You?") asks the powerful question, "Why all this hate between you which you teach your children?/The world looks at you and surpasses your understanding."

Although almost everything about Tinariwen is unfamiliar to Westerners, this music has an undeniable, visceral quality that makes it seem as if it comes from a place existing somewhere within all of us, some place old, untapped for a very long time yet still somehow intact. Not primitive, but inherent. This is music that defies the boundaries of country, time, and language. Although it speaks to you in a foreign tongue, if you're listening at all, you understand. Aman Iman is a mesmerizing, urgent album I am very pleased to tell you about. I hope you listen to it, and cherish it as I do.


Tinariwen - "Matadjem Yinmixan"
Tinariwen - "Cler Achel"
Tinariwen - "Imidiwan Winakalin" (Youtube video)

An amazing ten minute video about Tinariwen with an in-depth look into their history.
Tinariwen: Music of Resistance

Tinariwen's Website