The birth of the group Tinariwen in 1982 was intimately linked to exile and the consequent social upheaval experienced by the Touaregs. All the members of Tinariwen are natives of the Adrar of Iforas region in northeastern Mali. During the 1970s they sought refuge from drought and conflict in the southern Algerian town of Tamanrasset. Their lyrics call for the awakening of the politics of conscience and tackle the problems of exile, repression and territorial sovereignty. Arising from this painful period of exile, the group first took the name Taghreft Tinariwen which means ‘the enlightenment of the nation’ in Tamashek, the Touareg language. The original members slowly consolidated into a fully fledged group and added female backing vocalists to enhance their musical expression. Tinariwen performed in all kinds of settings….marriages, baptisms, gatherings and traditional feasts at encampments deep in the desert. Members of Tinariwen met Lo’Jo, the French group from Angers, in the Malian capital Bamako in 1997. These meetings lead to the first Festival in the Desert, which took place in January 2001 near the village of Tin Essako in the far northeastern corner of Mali, deep in the southern Sahara desert. In the weeks leading up to the festival Tinariwen recorded a set of songs in the studio of the Tamashek speaking Radio Tisdas in Kidal, the capital of northeastern Mali. The sessions were produced by English guitarist Justin Adams, now a member of the Robert Plant band, and Jean-Paul Romann, Lo’Jo’s sound engineer. Apart from the regular Tinariwen line-up (see below), the recordings also featured contributions from the legendary Kheddou and the poet guitarist Japonnais, key figures in the group’s history. ‘The Radio Tisdas Sessions’ CD was released on Wayward Records at the end of 2001 and with hardly any promotion went on to sell well in the UK and USA. Tinariwen then came over to Europe to tour extensively in 2001 and 2002, performing at the WOMAD and Roskilde Festivals and many other venues. In April 2003 they laid down the raw tracks for their forthcoming album ‘Amassakoul’ which is due out in Jan / Feb 2004 on Emma Productions in France, and different labels around the world.