FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 6, 2017
Contact: hilary@epitaph.com

TINARIWEN NOMINATED FOR GRAMMY AWARD

Band’s Elwan Up For “Best World Music Album”

Anti- would like to congratulate celebrated African Touareg band TINARIWEN on their recent Grammy Nomination for their incredible album Elwan in the Best World Music Album category. The group previously won the category in 2012 for their album Tassili.

In recent years, TINARIWEN’s homeland, a Saharan mountain range between north-eastern Mali and southern Algeria, has been transformed into a conflict zone. While the songs on Elwan evoke those cherished deserts of home, they were recorded in both the California desert of Joshua Tree and Southern Morocco and feature guest performances from Kurt Vile, Matt Sweeney, Alain Johannes, Mark Lanegan and more. Mojo wrote of the album, “this yearning, realpolitik-infused road movie of an album is one to point to the next time somebody pronounces there are no decent protest songs any more.”

The 60th Grammy Awards will take place at New York City's famed Madison Square Garden on Sunday, Jan. 28th, 2018.

Watch TINARIWEN’s powerful video for the song “Sastanàqqàm” here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vACZA9dGvV4

Critical Praise For Elwan:

“However much they conjure up campfire laments, you're rarely more than a few minutes from kick-ass riffs and percussive abandon” - Q Magazine

“From their beginnings in a refugee camp to their latest iteration as a world-touring entity, they can provide exultation and encouragement like few other ensembles, on any continent.“ - Pitchfork

“Elwan (Elephants), perhaps their most powerful album since Amassakoul, confronts their situation head-on, in songs musing on the values of ancestry, unity and fellowship, driven by the infectiously hypnotic cyclical guitar grooves that wind like creepers around their poetic imagery.” – The Independent, UK

“Elwan is pure rock n’ roll. There is an undeniable swagger and an unfettered attitude of resistance here; no pretension or theater.” – The Line Of Best Fit

“Tinariwen once again deliver a vital and engaging album.” - Allmusic

"As always, no melancholy is more sincere and no tale more elegantly told than Tinariwen’s." – Popmatters