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The last group is an all-female trio from Illighadad, a small town bordering the Sahara desert. Les Filles de Illighadad will know how to envelop you with the “curtains”, a typical musicality of their land and which sees the woman and a drum as the absolute protagonist.
Illighadad, in rural Niger
The trio is made up of 3 girls all from Illighadad, a Niger country located between the desert and the last remaining patch of vegetation. Precisely because of its particular location, this particular area of the country has developed an absolutely unique and original type of music: the “curtains”. This genre differs from the others typical of the Tuareg culture for the instrument, the “tents” in fact, and for the role played by the woman.
If usually the singers play above all to accompany a male voice as a choir, here the roles are reversed, giving the girls the role of absolute protagonist. The main themes revolve around the life of the village, love and prayers for the ancestors, which has led it increasingly to identify itself as music for the various festivals, sacred and otherwise, of rural Niger.
In search of tradition
Les Filles de Illighadad were born with the specific intent of bringing tradition back to a landscape dominated by too many contaminations, the most banal of which is linked to the use of the guitar. According to the band, in fact, this instrument is not really tied to tradition and indiscriminate use leads to the loss of a lot of musicality typical of the country, such as, for example, the sound of the curtains.
However, the group does not intend to condemn the instrument in its entirety, on the contrary, Fatou Sedi Ghali, the voice of the group, is one of the only Tuareg guitarists in circulation and her choice to devote herself to music has been a source of inspiration for many local girls. Their sound, enveloping and relaxing, will take you to their village, a place where vegetation and desert merge, resting the weary traveler.
Below you will find our Tuareg themed playlist, tomorrow we bring you our interview with the Moroccan director Tarik El Idrissi, author of Sound of Berberia, a musical roadmovie within amazight music.
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