Algeria’s Imarhan are excited to announce their first US tour since opening for Kurt Vile in 2016. This spring will find Imarhan touring in support of their soon to be released new album Temet, out on City Slang on February 23rd. The dates will take them to both coasts and places in between, including shows in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, New Orleans, and a performance at the 2018 Levitation Festival in Austin, TX. All upcoming US tour dates are below.
In conjunction with their tour announcement Imarhan have released the entrancing takeaway video for “Mas-abok”, from independent Parisian filmmaker Vincent Moon’s upcoming documentary on the band entitled Children of Tam. Moon followed the band for two weeks, documenting hours of music, pictures and conversations in their hometown of Tamanrasset and at neighboring mountain ranges, specifically Assekrem (Tamashek for “World’s End”), a high plateau in the Hoggar Mountains of Southern Algeria. The result is an hour-long documentary film, which serves as a portrait of the band and their hometown Tamanrasset, for which they are becoming ambassadors. Watch the video now below.
“Temet” in Tamashek means “connections,” and the album is an energetic wake up call for unity, reminding people that we are all connected and that only through the acceptance and uptake of this union will we be able to solve the troubles all cultures seem to be dealing with in this important moment in time.
“People should love each other. They need to know each other, we need to know each other, everyone should get to know their neighbor,” says frontman Iyad Moussa Ben Abderahmane – aka Sadam. “We need to have the same approach as our elders,” he continues, “You will stumble across an old man who knows the world and will hand down his knowledge to his children.“
Recorded in Paris in early 2017 and produced by the band with help from Patrick Votan and Tinariwen’s Eyadou Ag Leche, Temet marks a huge leap forward both creatively and artistically for a band who were heralded by The Guardian as one of the leading-lights of the “new–wave of Tuareg music.” Now firmly established and regarded as torch-bearers by the new generation of musicians in Algeria and the Mali border area, the album sees Imarhan broadening their sound beyond the meditative desert blues of their debut to take in elements of funk, disco and rock.
Growing up near each other in Tamanrasset, Southern Algeria, in a Tuareg community of Northern Malian descent, Imarhan formed at school in 2008 under the guidance of Tinariwen (Eyadou Ag Leche of Tinariwen is a cousin of frontman Sadam, and guided their evolution and produced and co-wrote several songs on their debut album). The band quickly gained acclaim for their effortless blend of the ancestral Tamashek poetry and traditional rhythms of their elders and sounds which reflected their youth and urban upbringing listening to music from around the globe.
Upcoming US Tour Dates:
APRIL
19 – Santa Barbara, CA – KCSB
20 – San Francisco, CA – Elbo Room
21 – Los Angeles, CA – The Echo
22 – Tucson, AZ – Club Congress
27 – Austin, TX – Levitation Festival
28 – New Orleans, LA – Gasa Gasa
29 – Atlanta, GA – The EARL
30 – Asheville, NC – The Mothlight
MAY
02 – Brooklyn, NY – Rough Trade
03 – New York, NY – The David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center
04 – Philadelphia, PA – West Kensington Ministry
05 – Columbus, OH – Spacebar
06 – Pittsburgh, PA – The Warhol
07 – Chicago, IL – Subterranean
08 – Minneapolis, MN – Cedar Center