Tinariwen, the Tuarag desert blues mainstay, is back with a new album and a gorgeous new video. The track, “Nannuflay,” features American rockers Kurt Vile and Mark Lanegan, but they don't overwhelm the Malian band’s trademark pentatonics with their American guitar style and English vocals. However, the video is a pretty cool entry point for people who have missed out on Tinarawin so far, illustrating a story that connects the group to its nomadic origins.
The video tells the following story:
In the Sahara Desert, an old Tuareg man comes back to the camp where he grew up for a party. He remembers the joys and the torments of the nomadic life he lived with a friend who has since deceased: memories from their naive childhood in the sand dunes, the adventures they lived during their teenage years, the fights and the dramas of their adult lives… Their friendship tells us the story of hearty people living in lands of loneliness.
The track is pulled from the Grammy-nominated new album Elwan, and the band is touring America this summer, starting off July 26 in Boston.
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