Bombino
Marije Kuiper
Niger-born singer and guitarist Bombino is fresh off the release of his fantastic new album Azel, released April 1 via Partisan Records, and today opening track of the Tuareg musician's LP, "Akhar Zaman (This Moment)," gets the remix treatment from Brooklyn producer Big Data.
The original song's bright, driving beat and infectious melody were crafted by Bombino and his five-piece band during their recording sessions at Applehead Studios in Woodstock, N.Y., resurrecting a song that had been kicking around for a while.
"It's a song of mine that I have been playing since the early days of my career," Bombino told Billboard this week (though he speaks several languages, on Azel he sings in his native Tamasheq). "The song talks about the difficult balance that we as Tuareg people face holding on to our traditions and our cultural identity while at the same time adapting to the modern world so that we too can develop alongside everyone else... It is an appeal to Tuareg people to remember their role in the world."
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