Week

End

In November of 2016, a few weeks after their gig at Week-End Fest, the female Tuareg avant rock group Les Filles de Illighadad around founding member Fatou Seidi Ghali found themselves in the Bear Cave Studio in Cologne to record their first ever studio album Eghass Malan. Hailing from the village of the same name bring their new genre of Tuareg guitar mixed with traditional rural folk. Versed in tradition, the band have created contemporary studio versions that are unlike anything ever before recorded, transporting rural nomadic song into the 21st century.

The sound that defines rural Niger is a music known as “tende.” It takes its name from a drum, built from a goat skin stretched across a mortar and pestle. Like the environs, tende music is a testament to wealth in simplicity, with sparse compositions built from a few elements, vocals, handclaps, and percussion.

Musicians:
Fatou Seidi Ghali – guitar, tende
Alamnou Akrouni – vocals, calabash
Fatimata Ahmadelher – guitar
Ahmoudou Madassane – vocals, guitar