Due to the cancellation of their Fall tour, Tartit will NOT be appearing at The Cedar on Sept 21. We hope to bring the group back at a future date.
Nothing is more evocative of the fascinating expanses of the Sahara desert than the music of Tartit, a Tuareg band consisting of five women and four men residing in the Timbuktu region. Tartit play hypnotic, trance-inducing music: the women sit down,
sing, and play cyclic rhythms on their tinde drums, while the
men sing and play string instruments, acoustic and electric.
The tinde, played exclusively by women, is made from a small
wooden mortar that the women use to grind grains, and which
is covered with a goatskin. The men are veiled, the women aren't.
Tuareg society is one of the few throughout Africa in which
women are allowed to choose (and divorce) their husbands.
The word Tartit means union; it symbolizes the link
that exists among these musicians. The band was formed in a
refugee camp, during the Tuareg uprising in the early '90s.
These men and women of the desert, in their colourful attire,
express themselves primarily through their music. They cultivate
their Tuareg traditions wherever they go, whether they are in
exile, refugee camps or on tour. For the Tuareg, music is neither
a profession, nor a sign of some exceptional trait. It is, quite
simply, the identity of a nomad people that seeks to live freedom,
without borders with the meaning of the bands name.
Tartit have toured Europe several times, most recently as part
of the Desert Blues shows. Their second album Abacabok
was recorded in Bamako and in the northern Mali desert by (Congotronics
producer) Vincent Kenis, on his mobile studio.
The African record of the year: A male-led, woman-dominated
group of Saharan Tuaregs, Tartit were conceived by Belgian
record men and sound more Arab than African, though they
really just sound Tuareg. This new album hops up the drones
and chants of 2000's Ichichili with faster tempos
and the occasional western rhythm instrument. Eerie proof
if you need it that Islam and its music comes in many
forms."
-Robert Christgau, Rolling Stone
"An entirely mesmerizing set by a Tuareg group whose membership
slightly favors women. (It's noted that the men of Tartit,
playing stringed instruments, are veiled, whereas the
women are not.) The loping grooves and spidery guitar
figures are reduced here to the barest, most powerful
essence, as though this nine member group was a sub-Sahelian
version of ESG"
-WIRE
"Congotronics producer Vincent Kenis hit the
Sahara earlier this year to capture a different kind of
trance music performed by this desert blues nontet. The
group, like fellow Tuareg rockers Tinariwen, formed in
a refugee camp, but their music is more cyclical than
that of their more well-known counterparts. The band's
five women play percussion while the four men play electric
and acoustic guitars. Everybody sings. "Ansari" is a captivating
piece of music that trades verses lead by a solo male
voice for huge choral moments, and the rhythmic dynamics
are excellent, balancing stop-time passages with jumping
beats driven by handclaps. There are two jaw-dropping
guitar solos, and neither break the song's hypnotic rhythmic
momentum. It's amazing how rooted to geography music can
sound, and this music somehow is the Sahara, with towering
dunes roiled by wind, and the arid, empty expansiveness
unique to that part of the world." -Pitchforkmedia.com
Due to the cancellation of their Fall tour, Tartit will NOT be appearing at The Cedar on Sept 21. We hope to bring the group back at a future date.
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