With blues-inflected acoustic guitar picking, Imarhan from Tamanrasset open their fourth album Essam. Soon the voice of singer and guitarist Sadam enters, meditative and melancholic. Gradually, more voices join in. Around the midpoint of the song, ethereal sound layers seep into the arrangement. They signal a new phase for the band, who gently yet decisively push forward the style associated with groups like Tinariwen or Tamikrest. Support came from their sound engineer Maxime Kosinetz as well as Émile Papandreou of the French duo UTO, who among other things sampled and processed the percussion using a modular synthesiser.
The band’s new approach is perhaps most striking on »Azaman Amoutay«, where Sadam sings over electronic beats about being overwhelmed by the density of events in the present moment. The following »Tin Arayth« leans more clearly towards earlier albums: driven by traditional percussion and crowned with silvery lead guitars. This is not a rejection of the past, but a sign of continuity. Still, the melancholy is unmistakable – the past few years have not been easy for the Tuareg either.
