TINARIWEN – IMIDIWAN: COMPANIONS

An album, album number four no less, that offers more of the same is generally a less than enthusiastic recommendation. That is unless that very “same” is the hypnotic African desert blues of tribesman, warriors and 30-year musical collaborators Tinariwen. Having spent 25 of those years inside Africa, and some of the last five traveling and playing across the globe, it is interesting to see if you can hear any adjustment to the Tinariwen sound on Imidiwan: Companions. The answer lies in the early half of the album. Is that an increase in urgency? An ever so slight picking up of the pace as the rhythm section hurry along the band? Maybe it is the West impinging slightly, or an acknowledgement that the situation in their home continent requires increasingly urgent attention. Yet as they settle into the album you feel the familiar and contented pace settle back in, the feel that you know in your bones come from centuries of knowing, not years of influence. The choral start to the opening track Imidiwan Afrik Tendam (‘My Friends From All Over Africa’) welcomes us in on a celebratory note and they conclude with the unlisted but beautiful point to the future Chabiba (‘Youth’) – in between Imidiwan: Companions is as mesmerisingly beautiful and compelling as anything Tinariwen have laid down in the studio. Essential.

**** 1/2