Etran de L’Air: Agadez | 4ZZZ Brisbane 102.1FM

- Etran de L'Aïr are the latest in an abundant stream of Tuareg guitar bands to come out of the Sahara Desert in north-West Africa. The family band started gigging in the 90’s, but made their recorded debut in 2018 with an album captured entirely on a mobile phone. Agadez is their first entry into the world of high-fidelity recording; and it comes out, like a lot of great music from the region, on the Sahel Sounds label.

While the slow and spacious guitar music of genre trailblazers Tinariwen saw the style dubbed “desert blues”, Etran de L'Aïr’s take is fast and upbeat – with intertwining lead guitar lines and relentless syncopated drumbeats. This is party music, honed by two and a half decades of playing local weddings and other celebrations.

Etran de L'Aïr translates to “stars of Aïr”, that being the region of Saharan Niger where the band hail from. Agadez is the biggest town in the region, so you could say this is a record firmly rooted in a place. It’s a distinctive place too, and not just because of its mountainous desert landscape. Agadez is in some ways a crossroads between worlds. Migrants from all over Africa hoping for a better life stop there on their journey across the desert and sea to Europe. Terrorist and militia groups hide out in the mountains nearby, while a stone’s throw from town sits a US military base housing hundreds of soldiers.

It seems like a place on the crossroads of time too – where traditional outfits and ways of desert life mix with four wheel drives and smartphones. Etran de L'Aïr’s traditional melodies played on electric guitar and western-style drumkits bring this out too.

It’s a curiosity of the modern world; that traditionally nomadic people like the Tuaregs in this band are settling down in cities, while others who have been connected to the same patch of land for generations are on the move – either displaced by conflict and drought or just seeking better economic opportunities. Agadez is the perfect encapsulation of this dynamic, and that comes out in the lyrics which were helpfully translated by Sahel Sounds.

Opening track Imouwizla translates as “Migrants”, and it sings “where are we going? We only roam the deserts and we perish between countries”. It’s a sentiment very familiar to many in their home town. Teharwete Ine Idinette says “this life is made of change, Allah preserve the community of Tuaregs”. Alhaire speaks to the frequent conflict in the region, opening with “Tell me what’s more precious in this world than peace?”

These lyrics bring out the melancholy that you can detect in the melodies to this upbeat party music, the tensions hidden in the dust rising from the desert dancefloor. Etran de L'Aïr have made a wonderful album, and a little glimpse into life at the crossroads between worlds in Agadez.

- Andy Paine.