Tinariwen to bring acclaimed live show to Canada

Tinariwen to bring acclaimed live show to Canada

Toronto — Legendary guitar-poets Tinariwen are set to tour Canada in support of their award winning fourth album Imidiwan: Companions (Outside Music). The Tuareg band has scheduled stops in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal and Quebec City (details below).

Tinariwen are a band of Tuareg musicians from the Sahara Desert region of northern Mali, whose mix of electric blues and Middle Eastern & African traditional drumming, has created a unique sound of their very own. Formed in 1979, they rose to prominence in the 1980s as the musical voice of a new political and social conscience in the southern Sahara. In the early 2000s, Tinariwen started to gain a following outside Africa, first in the world music community and then on the wider rock scene, through frequent tours and appearances at major festivals in Europe and the USA.

Over the past seven years, the group have played over 700 concerts and graced bills of the world’s premier rock and world music festivals including Glastonbury, Coachella, Roskilde, Paleo, Les Vieilles Charrues, WOMAD and Printemps de Bourges. Their 2004 CD Amassakoul (The Traveller) and its follow-up in 2007 Aman Iman (Water Is Life), have established them as one of the most popular and best selling African groups on the planet. Their ever expanding fan base includes a host of stars and legends: Carlos Santana, Robert Plant, Bono and the Edge, Thom Yorke, Chris Martin, Henry Rollins, Brian Eno, TV on the Radio. In 2005 they were awarded a BBC Award for World Music, and in 2008 they received Germany’s prestigious Praetorius Music Prize. More recently Tinariwen were awarded 2009’s coveted Uncut Music Award.

Imidiwan: Companions is vintage Tinariwen: raw, defiant, fragile and uncompromisingly real. The CD is accompanied by a short DVD film by French filmmaker Jessy Nottola, and reaffirms Tinariwen’s global status as one of the most popular and significant groups ever to have come out of Mali.

Tinariwen Canadian Tour 2010
February 25 | Vancouver @ The Orpheum Theatre
March 4 | Toronto @ The Phoenix Concert Theatre
March 5 | Montreal @ Club Soda
March 6 | Quebec City @ Palais Montcalm