SONIC DUNES: TAMIKREST (MALI)
The Sonic Dunes concert series, usually associated with desert rock in the Californian, Kyuss-inspired sense, is now expanding its horizons all the way to the Sahara. Old friends of our stage, Tamikrest, will bring considerably less distortion and fewer heavy riffs, but plenty more rhythmic trance and a different psychedelic tradition. Get ready for some proper desert blues, as they arrive with their new album Assikel!
While we’ll be celebrating Slovenian culture and language, the musicians taking the stage before us come from a background where preserving one’s own culture, language and identity is far from something to be taken for granted. The Tuareg, or Kel Tamasheq, as they call themselves, have spent decades caught in the grip of political conflicts, exile and an increasingly uncertain future for their traditional way of life. And although all of this is deeply reflected in their music, Tamikrest are by no means a band you should listen to simply because of their story.
Formed in northern Mali in 2006, they were inspired by Tinariwen and the ishumar tradition: the guitar music of Tuareg rebels and exiles, who fused traditional rhythms and melodies with electric guitars, blues and rock. A significant chapter in their story began when they met Chris Eckman and the band Dirtmusic at the Festival in the Desert in Mali in 2008. This encounter developed into a long-standing collaboration, first with the Glitterhouse label and later with Glitterbeat, which remains their musical home.
They’re returning with their sixth album, Assikel (Glitterbeat, 2026), which they haven’t presented here before and which sees them refreshing their sound in several ways. The album was recorded in just ten days at Tone Boutique studio in the Netherlands, live onto analogue tape, under the guidance of Jasper Geluk, who has also worked with Altın Gün, among others. Rather than painstaking studio perfection and piecing everything together afterwards, they opted for collective playing, spontaneity and musical chemistry. The result is a rawer, more direct and at times considerably more rock-oriented record, without losing any of their trademark melodic sensibility and irresistible grooves. Assikel, which means journey in Tamasheq, weaves together feelings of longing, homesickness and loss, captured by the Tuareg word assouf, as well as anger and resistance against the circumstances that make life in their homeland increasingly difficult.
We’ve hosted Tamikrest at Gala Hala before, so we know exactly what happens when their winding guitar lines, persistent bass motifs, percussion and Ousmane’s distinctive vocals lock into a shared rhythm. Western ears will quickly recognise blues and psychedelic rock in their music, but behind it all lies a much older musical tradition, with a different sense of rhythm, melody and repetition. Their songs are in no particular hurry. Motifs slowly unfold, intertwine and unravel until you suddenly realise you’ve been swaying along in a kind of Saharan trance for quite some time.
So, for Slovenia’s Culture Day, we’re in for a rather unconventional celebration: forget the formal cultural programme and get ready for a proper dose of Saharan rock’n’roll.
The concert starts at 20:30!
Music policy: psychedelic desert blues / Tuareg rock’n’roll / afro-groove
Admission: €17 in advance via mojekarte.si, €20 on the day of the concert
