Mdou Moctar

Another version of the butterfly effect is when a guitar riff that rises from the Sahel desert sets fire to a concert hall in Los Angeles. Ever since the first embers of this slow explosion reached me I've been inexorably sucked into the curious music of this atypical musician. A story with a singular protagonist that merits the telling. In the village of Arlit, little Mahamadou Souleymane’s life changed with a jolt when he saw a street performance by Abdallah Oumbadougou. Music was not welcome under his religious parents’ roof but secretly, out of boards and bicycle brake cables, the child made himself a guitar.

Tuareg music could do with some transformation but it's hard to get around its solid traditional foundations. As he grew up, Mdou learnt that there are strict rules but he was never limited by them. He migrated to Agadez and then over to Tahoua, gradually moving closer to the capital Niamey in the hope of blossoming there as an artist. He experimented like crazy, going so far as to use and abuse a vocoder on his rather ‘out there’ first album, difficult to handle when one isn’t prepared for it! What might – for Western ears – sound like something of a caricature, is now considered one of the first modern electronic adaptations of the Tuareg guitar. The album Anar then went viral on an MP3 exchange network that is commonly transmitted via Bluetooth in the region.

Meanwhile, a little further west in Mali, American Christopher Kirkley found that many people seemed to have the song “Tahoultine” on their mobile phones. Becoming obsessed with this music, the founder of the Sahel Sounds label added the track to his compilation Music from Saharan Cellphones and set out in search of Mdou, relentlessly scouring social networks to find a trace of him. Thanks to his persistence a connection was made and the two men eventually met, giving birth to Afelan in 2013, a live album that shows a more folkloric side of the artist.

Christopher, who spends most of his time scouting for hidden talent in the Sahel region, has made Mdou his protégé, convinced that he will be able to offer him the international exposure he deserves. In the meantime, the duo teamed up to make a musical film shot in the desert, which is basically a remake of Purple Rain. Mdou Moctar plays the film’s lead and, of course, composed the soundtrack. The film is called Akounak Tedalat Taha Tazoughai, which can be translated as "Rain the Colour of Blue with A Little Red In It", where he plays some classics and some psychedelic novelties. Shunning routine, he then explored another direction with the intimate Sousoume Tamachek, inspired by songs he sang in his youth at picnics with friends.

Endowed with a seemingly limitless capacity for open-mindedness, Mdou Moctar continues to perform his modern vision of Tuareg rock and blues, also known as ‘Assouf’ or ‘Tichoumaren’. His latest album to date, Ilana: The Creator released in 2019, have seen him on tour outside his native land. Even without understanding the lyrics, one can feel the urgency, the distress, the melancholy, and the hope that emanates. His words are a cry for aid, denouncing a new kind of colonisation and the modern slavery that results. With a song like “Kamane Tarhanin”, the music of Mdou Moctar and his band is a distillation of raw emotion just waiting to be shared.

His next full length is due out next year on the Matador label.