Tuareg guitarist Mdou Moctar has announced that his new album, Afrique Victime, will be released by Matador on May 21.
Watch a video for the new single “Tala Tannam” below:
“Tala Tannam means your tears,” says Moctar. The clip was filmed in Niamey, Niger last year. “While the song talks about love, we wanted to show the love between friendships and the love of Niger,” says bassist and producer Mikey Coltun. “The video includes friends and family – in the Tuareg community in villages around Niamey as well as Hausa people from villages in the Dosso region.”
Coltun recorded and produced Afrique Victime around the band’s travels in 2019 – working in studios, apartments, hotel rooms, venue backstages, and in field recordings in Niger. “While people have gotten to know Mdou Moctar as a rock band, there is a whole different set of music with this band done on acoustic guitars, which we wanted to incorporate into this album in order to go through a sonic journey,” says Moctar.
Pre-order Afrique Victime here.