★Sahel Sounds
Namian Sidibé
Big Tip! Another side of modern Malian praise songs: an intimate, stripped down, acoustic session from Namian Sidibé. From a rising generation of young Malian divas leveraging social media, Namian has built a following, publishing videos and dedicati…
Music From Saharan WhatsApp
In 2020, Sahel Sounds hosted a project called Music from Saharan WhatsApp. This series consisted of ephemeral digital EPs, documenting live performances by some of the most exciting acts in the Sahel playing music, including Nigerién techno, wedding…
At Pioneer Works
At Pioneer Works' documents a 2019 performance from Tuareg band Les Filles De Illighadad (the daughters of Illighadad). Their music is a smart blend of Tuareg's desert guitar sound that originated from young men in exile in Libya and Algeria in the 1…
Ilana: The Creator
Born in a nomad camp in Niger and now a leading figure of desert rock, Mdou Moctar stands out as the most innovative artist in contemporary Saharan music. His unconventional interpretations of Tuareg guitar have pushed him to the forefront of a crowd…
Oyiwane
Sweet and sublime recordings from Elementary school group in Northern Niger from the 1980s. All-girl group accompanied by their instructor on the acoustic guitar, recalling Guinean folk and early Ali Farka Touré. Troupe École Tudu takes their name f…
Zerzura
Original soundtrack recording to the film Zerzura, the first ever
Saharan acid Western, telling the story of a nomad’s search for a magic
city of gold. Evoking the desert journey with free form guitar
improvisations, the soundtrack is a meditation…
Sousoume Tamachek
Music for desert picnics. Tuareg guitarist Mdou Moctar delves into his more sensitive side with a minimal studio recording of dreamy ballads. Thumping calabash, droning guitars, and vocal overdubs evoke an imagined desert soundscape. All instruments …
Music from Saharan Cellphones Vol.2
2017 repress. "Contemporary pop music from the Sahara desert, where songs are stored on cellphones. Collected in Northern Mali in 2010 (since taken over by extremists who've banned music on cellphones) the second volume expands into new sonic territo…
Music from Saharan Cellphones
2017 repress, originally released in 2012. "A compilation of the most popular music circulating the Sahara desert on the unofficial network of cellphones -- where mp3s are stored, played, and traded in very literal peer to peer bluetooth transfers. T…
Agrim Agadez: Musique Guitare de la Republique du Niger
Agrim Agadez is a compilation of contemporary field recordings of guitar music from the Sahelian empire of Niger. Focusing on guitar music throughout the country, from meditative starlight ballads, fuzzy Hendrix covers, rag tag wedding bands, to p…
Waande Kadde
Dreamy instrumentals from Fouta Toro. Improvisational session of acoustic guitar and hoddu, drawing on regional folklore, ancient praise songs and epic ballads. Recorded in a fishing village in Northern Senegal, with an ever present backdrop of child…
Fasokan
New age music from West Africa. Lush and hypnotic dreamscapes combine traditional instrumentation with sweeping electronics, field recordings, and soothing affirmations in these original compositions. Cut up Kora and Balafon are layered over software…
Akounak Tedalat Taha Tazoughai OST
The first ever Tuareg language fictional film, based on the legendary rock-u-drama “Purple Rain,” Akounak or “Rain the Color Blue with a Little Red in it” explores the world of a musician trying to succeed in the raucous subculture of the Niger guita…
Yamedan
"Self produced album from Niger Tuareg rock outfit TisDass. Looping electric guitar and thumping two chord rhythms. Led by singer songwriter Kildjate Moussa Albadé, former bassist for Group Bombino, his solo project draws on his vast repertoire of i…
Nouakchott Wedding Songs
Raucous and electrified wedding songs from the desert kingdom of Mauritania. Luxurious overload of microtonal scales, phaser pedals, and unpredictable polyrhythms. Documentation of a little known music scene where disparate influences meet in beautif…
Unreleased Tapes 1981-1984
Experimentation in early electronic music in the Sahara from the singular Mamman Sani. Dreamy organs and droning melodies reinterpret ancient folk tradition into sublime fantastical soundscape. Never before released recordings from the very beginning…
Abba Gargando
Low-fi Tuareg guitar from renowned Timbouctou musician Abba Gargando. Original compositions and folklore classics from hypnotic electrified weddings to quiet fireside recordings in the refugee camps. Collected and recorded on cellphones, sparse re…
Uchronia: Field Recordings from Alternate Realities
Uchronia : The Unequivocal Interpretation of Reality, is a multi-dimensional project realized in Bamako by photographer Maciek Pozoga and musicologist Christopher Kirkley. This body of work juggling between folklorism, science fiction and social docu…
Isswat
Few copies available, sold out at source - Tuareg drone recordings from Azawad region of the Sahara desert. Music of nostalgia, longing, and revolutionaries, sung by Fadimoutou Wallet Inamoud in her debut recording, a local production from 2008. Spar…
Enregistre Pour Yehia Le Marabout
Some of the most intense music we've ever heard from the Mali scene – a set that takes the older takamba rhythms, but gives them a propulsive feel from lots of fast percussion and guitar lines – all served up with little other instrumentation at a…