Tinariwen « The Hoggar Tour »

Tinariwen, pioneers of the desert blues they call assuf—the Tamasheq word for nostalgia and distance—are stopping in Rennes as part of The Hoggar Tour. On 11 May 2026, Le MeM will host the Tuareg group from Mali and their sonic signature: long-looped guitars, grainy vocals and spare rhythms that move like a caravan.

Born between exile and Saharan crossings, the musicians left armed struggle in the early 1990s to carry their stories in song. Their music relies on pentatonic melodies, sliding riffs, a call-and-response interplay and backing vocals that tighten the texture. The lyrics, in Tamasheq, recount the road, the camps, attachment to the land and the memory of a nomadic people.

Over two decades, Tinariwen have played countless stages and helped spread Tuareg culture far beyond the Sahara. In Rennes, the group unfolds that gentle, stubborn trance that takes its time, lets space breathe and gradually settles the body into the pulse, with a mix of dust, rhythm and echo borne from the desert.