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Tamikrest make their Australian debut at the Opera House

Smouldering desert blues blaze into the Sydney Opera House for their Australian debut

Monday 31 October, 2022
DRAMA THEATRE, SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE

Sydney – Monday 1 August, 2022. Hailing from the Sahara Desert region of Mali, West Africa’s powerhouse desert blues collective Tamikrest will bring their singular combination of Tamasheq music and rebel rock for an unmissable night in the Drama Theatre on Monday 31 October, for their much-anticipated Australian debut tour.

Sydney Opera House Head of Contemporary Music, Ben Marshall, says: “Passionate and virtuosic, Tamikrest’s music is firmly founded on the Tuareg cause, transmuting their sometimes harrowing personal experiences into raw, affecting desert blues that can touch the transcendent. Inspired by Tinariwen, and acknowledging all their Saharan forebears, while constantly searching and striving to push assouf music forwards, come and feel their unique, heavy, guitar-based rock in the intimate surrounds of the Sydney Opera House Drama Theatre.”

Formed in Kidal in the desert region of northern Mali, with musicians from Mali, Niger, Algeria and France, Tamikrest draw on the rebel Tuareg Blues style born of homelands mired in political turbulence, while incorporating heavy American rock, reggae and folk to create a sound that is both global and utterly unique.

Their most recent album, Tamotait, is the band’s most powerful since 2013’s widely acclaimed Chatma, a career-high opus that sees them deepening their atmospherics, recording with traditional Japanese musicians, and collaborating with acclaimed Moroccan singer Hindu Zahra.

“As kids, we dreamt of playing our music in big concert halls all around the world – Pink Floyd being our idols, we aspired to do the same. But, of course, living remotely in the Sahara desert, we never expected to play these iconic places,” says Tamikrest’s Ousmane Ag Mossa“Sydney Opera House is famous all around the world. We are really looking forward to playing here. It’s an honour.”

EVENT DETAILS
WHAT:      Tamikrest
WHEN:      8pm, Monday 31 October, 2022
WHERE:    Drama Theatre
TICKETS:  From $39 + booking fee // sydneyoperahouse.com // +61 2 9250 7777
                  Insiders Presale: 9am, Tuesday 2 August
                  What’s On Presale: 12pm, Wednesday 3 August
                  GP on-sale: 9am, Friday 5 August

For media information, please contact:

Genvin In
Communications Coordinator
genvin.in@sydneyoperahouse.com // 0449 939 864