The Festival in the Desert - MixedMedia - Brief Article - Sound Recording Review

New Internationalist, Dec, 2003 by Louise Gray

Those who find the usual music festivals a little too run-of-the-mill these days are advised to head for Mali. With a little forward planning, you should just get there in time for the January Festival in the Desert. Start first in Essouk and then track across to Essakane, 60 kilometres northwest of Timbuktu.

The Festival, which began in 2001 as the semblance of peace was returning to the southern Sahara, is no exotic attempt to transplant WOMAD to Africa. The Festival grew out of an organic need for the nomadic Tuareg tribes to meet regularly and do the things that their society required. The Festival is unique, and, although its growing international face was given a kickstart by the involvement of France's Lo'Jo and others, its local aspect dominates.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

And this CD is enough to make you saddle that camel. Recorded live under the stars of Essakane, it brings together the best of Malian music with a smattering of outsiders--the Navajo band, Blackfire, Robert Plant and Justin Adams stand out--all the while making profound links between original and modern blues. Even on CD, the atmosphere is fantastic: the female Tamashek group, Tarit, deliver a stunning, trancelike track of vocals and drums, and Afel Bocoum's wildly catchy 'Buri Bayain', simply brings the roof down. Well, in a manner of speaking. Exceptional.

Rating ***** LG

www.festival-au-desert.org

by Various (Independent Records Ltd/Wayward IRL002 CD)