ctrl LIVE: Imarhan [Algeria]

Imarhan have always ripped up the rulebook, and they’re coming to enforce this on Saturday, November 7, in Control.

Since 2006, the band has challenged preconceptions about the Tuareg desert blues sound known as assouf, popularised by the likes of Tinariwen and Mdou Moctar, by blending its ancient poetry and rhythms with funk, psych-rock and pan-African rhythms.

Across three albums, the Algerian group has toured extensively internationally, collaborated with Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals and Giant Sand’s Howe Gelb, opened up for Kurt Vile, and been remixed by Moscoman, criss-crossing musical worlds and finding new audiences worldwide. Among the growing visibility for Southwest Asian and North African artists globally, Imarhan’s bold blend of genres and influences signals a cross-cultural exchange that is as contemporary as anything in the charts.

With their fourth album, Essam (lightning in the Tuareg language of Tamasheq), Imarhan forge ahead once again, creating a watershed moment in Tuareg music.

"tipped to throw the band headlong into the global mainstream. It’s a stunning piece of work, at once widescreen and intimate, its cyclical songs broadly based in the time-honored assouf style, but spiced with hypnotic chants, tapestries of woven acoustic guitar, textural electronica and visceral blasts of fuzzbox blues." - Henry Yates from Guitar World on Essam.

They sampled Imarhan’s live percussion, such as traditional Tuareg instruments like the calabash and jerrycans, and processed them through a modular synthesiser, adding newfound texture and depth. Songs like the intoxicating “Derhan N’Oulhine” are bold departures: a rousing folk-pop masterpiece with washes of cosmic synths pulsating underneath.

“We tried something we’d never done before, we took some risks,” says Sadam, the band’s lead vocalist and guitarist. “Music allows us the freedom to try new things.”

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* Children up to 12 years old do not have access to the event.

** Children up to 16 years old need a valid ticket and must be accompanied by a parent with a valid ticket.

*** Minors aged 16 to 18 years old have access with a valid ticket.

**** Serving and alcohol consumption are strictly forbidden for all minors.