Imarhan

Imarhan carries the new Tuareg generation with a sound that links assouf, the desert blues, to rock and pop impulses and a firmly rooted Saharan funk. Hailing from Tamanrasset, the band sings in Tamasheq and recounts the daily life of Kel Tamashek youth, between the Sahara’s horizon and urban energy. Interplaying guitars, a supple bass, backing vocals and rhythms drawn as much from local festivities as from contemporary music create an unmistakable pulse. After four albums, their trajectory widens with Essam, released on City Slang, where repetitive motifs, Sub-Saharan ballads and pop-rock experiments intertwine—heard in Algeria as much as in the West. On stage, Imarhan tightens its collective interplay, intensifies the polyrhythms and lets the voices carry the whole. On 10 September 2026 at Le Dodu in Marseille, the band will present Essam alongside tracks from Imarhan, Temet and Aboogi, for a set in which the electric thread of tichumaren crosses the movements of a lively Saharan scene, between desert and city.