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Imarhan (vertaald: 'De mensen waar ik om geef') is een Algerijnse Toearegband die in 2006 werd opgericht in Tamanrasset.
Het gelijknamige debuutalbum werd in 2016 uitgebracht door het Duitse platenlabel City Slang. Het album werd geproduceerd door Eyadou Ag Leche, bassist bij Tinariwen en de neef van de zanger van Imarhan. Een tweede album, Temet, volgde in 2018. De gedwongen thuiszitperiode vanwege de coronacrisis gebruikten de bandleden om hun eigen studio te bouwen op hun geboortegrond en om daar dan ook hun derde album op te nemen, Aboogi, dat in januari 2022 verscheen op cd en elpee. |
| With Aboogi, Imarhan manipulates the rights and ancestry of the Tuareg. By inviting the legendary Mohamed At Itlale aka Japonais (who has since, sadly, passed away) and the genius musician Abdallah Ag Alhousseyni, IMARHAN follows the heritage of TINARIWEN, the godfathers of Assouf.
When they recorded with GRUFF RHYS of the SUPER FURRY ANIMALS, their brilliant and universal songwriting takes on every sense of the word. Finally, by inviting the Sudanese singer Sulafa Elyas, we understand that IMARHAN is open to all of Africa, defenders of the Tuaregs but above all spokesperson for the new African generation. We speak about the link to nature, oppression, lost youth but also and especially about hope and struggle on sandy guitar riffs, bewitching choirs and poetic lyrics. released January 28, 2022 |
| ESSAM is the band’s fourth album, recorded with the same core lineup, but marks a significant shift in their sound and approach. Musically, it marks a departure from the rocky, bluesy, psychedelic Tuareg guitar-driven sound influenced by Tinariwen’s heritage — moving toward something more open, modern, and exploratory. For the first time, their long-time sound engineer Maxime Kosinetz stepped in as producer. He travelled to Tamanrasset with Emile Papandreou (of the French duo UTO), a multi-instrumentalist who introduced electronic elements by sampling live instruments and reprocessing them in real time with a modular synthesizer — subtly reshaping the band's sonic identity. released January 16, 2026 |