"ISING ABOUT LIFE," explains Omara "Bombino" Moctar. "In life, there are big important cultural issues that occupy your mind and heart, and there are also personal and intimate issues that inspire you."
Over email, Moctar, who is fluent in French and his native Tuareg language Tamasheq, describes how his band Bombino's recently released fifth album, Azel, vacillates between matters of the heart and his strong ties to his African upbringing. On the new album, Moctar's deft, hypnotic playing meets vocal harmonies—a first for the band—to create a hybrid genre Moctar calls "Tuareggae." The style is a symbiosis of complementary energies found on songs like "Timtar (Memories)," a pleading love opus to an ex-girlfriend, and "Iwaranagh (We Must)," an austere declaration of fervent independence and pride for the Tuareg people.
Bombino's romantic side can also be found on "Timtar (Memories)" and songs like "Inar (If You Know the Degree of My Love for You)." These offer a bit of salve from Moctar's more cerebral song topics, which espouse allegiance to cultural traditions from his Saharan roots, and pay tribute to martyrs who died during the Tuareg rebellion in Mali and Niger in the early '90s in the song "Ashuhada."
"It is the responsibility of Tuareg artists that have the good fortune of traveling outside of Africa to act like ambassadors of the Tuareg people and our culture," says Moctar.