Customer Reviews

Desert Blues, Vol. 3 - Entre dunes et savanes

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Since there's no official product description, I'm copy-pasting this for your information.

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It is 10 years since the label Network began recording artists from the Sahara, Sahel and neighbouring countries.The journey to the serene side of African music has since been awarded international prizes, has been in the charts for months and is regarded as the "best-selling compilation of African music of all time" (fRoots). Many stars from the countries around the Sahara have allowed themselves to be inspired by the Desert Blues.
For Desert Blues III, the editorial team has evaluated all the new releases of recent years and is now presenting the creme of musicians from 10 countries and their highly emotional ballads: including, super-stars Khaled and Souad Massi from Algeria; Malouma "The Lady of the Blues" from Mauritania; the poignant voice of Dhafer Youssef from Tunisia;
Gigi, the current queen of Ethiopian soul music; expressive music from Mali by Amadou andMarian, Ali Farka Toure, Oumo Sangare, Rokia Traore with the Kronos Quartet; "Fula Flute" from Guinea; Tuareg music from West Africa by the successful
group Tinariwen. And all of this is complemented by several completely new discoveries and first releases. A musical dream journey to the voices and vibes of the oases, the savannas, the caravans, the endless seas of sand and Tuareg campfires. Long-format double CD ..More than 2 hours playing time.

The third element "Desert Blues 3," is no exception to this rule and is proposing 28 new pieces have in common their obvious similarities to the blues. A good twenty different artists more or less known (Cheb Khaled, Souad Massi, Malouma, Dhafer Youssef, Amadou & Mariam, Ali Farka Toure, Toumani Diabate, Oumou Sangare, Rokia Traore, Kronos Quartet, Tinariwen or Gigi Queen ' Addis Ababa and the Ethiopian saxophonist Getatchew of Mekurya). Anyway, this compilation is full of beautiful voice, melodies envoutantes or magic full of smells of Africa ...
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I totally agree, this music is a revelation. I'm sick and tired of Arabic disco and of mindless, superficial fusion pieces (although I deeply appreciate learned fusion like the one of Omar Faruk Tekbilek and Marcel Khalife). Moreover I dislike electronic music and "canned" beats, and here most if not all (I'm not 100% sure) is acoustic, so here's another big reason why I liked this compilation.
By the way, the tracklist on this page has a small mistake. Track n.14 of the second CD is Gigi, singing "Ethiopia".
But well, maybe there are differences in French and U.S. editions...