The Sahara Sessions

As the list of African acts, from Rokia Traoré to Bombino, seeking an indie rock‘n’roll makeover grows ever longer, Etran Finatawa have taken a diametrically opposite route on their fourth album. The Sahara Sessions was recorded not with banks of electric guitars in a state-of-the-art Western studio, but beneath a shelter of animal skins under a canopy of stars – in a tent in the Niger desert. Acoustic guitars are picked atmospherically, calabash percussion clatters energetically and keening voices weave in and out with magical and mysterious effect.

Opener ‘Matinfa’ is a commentary on the political upheavals currently convulsing the Sahel region, set to an infectious, bouncing folk-pop melody, buoyed by a skipping bass line and is the only exception to the record's unplugged vibe. Given the limitations of the campfire palette of acoustic guitars, traditional percussion and handclaps, the diversity of sounds and styles that follows is impressive, drawing on both Touareg culture and the related, but distinctively different, nomadic heritage of the Wodaabe. Tightly structured songs are mixed with passages of thrilling improvisation in a spirit of captivating spontaneity. The political troubles and economic hardships currently blighting the region mean that tracks such as ‘An Mataf Germanawen’ and ‘Is Ler Is Salan’ make this a record about survival, steeped in the deep, mournful blues of the desert. But on tracks such as ‘Matinfa’, ‘Icheraid Azaman’ and ‘In De Hallad’ the album brims with a contagious freedom and joie de vivre.