SOMERVILLE — Many moods spill together, like shifting sands, to create the sound of Terakaft. It feels old and new, peaceful but agitated, joyous and outraged. It is revolution rock born amid violent ...

The music of Terakaft, the Saharan group fronted by Sanou Ag Ahmed and Liya “Diara” Ag Ablil, was born of turmoil. An offshoot of the celebrated desert blues outfit Tinariwen (Diara was a longtime ...

Following Terakaft at the Speakeasy was Red Baraat, the hottest band in world music. It’s actually a Brooklyn band, but leader Sunny Jain has built their sound atop the traditional horns-and-drums ...

Sign up for City Lights, our twice-weekly guide to arts and nightlife in the D.C. area. It lands in your inbox every Sunday and Thursday. Terakaft are a Tuareg family ...

Sahara-based ensemble Terakaft titled its 2008 disc “Akh Issudar,” which is drawn from a Temasheq-language proverb. The full phrase means, “Water is life. Milk is survival.” Such axioms about what ...

It should come as no surprise that Terakaft’s music bears numerous similartities to that of their better-known Tuareg bretheren, Tinariwen. After all, Terakaft’s founders Liya Ag Ablil and the late ...

There are few places in the world where Touaregs-Malian Bedouin nomads can feel at home, but the Arizona desert is one of them. “This caravan started in the desert of Mali, but we ended up in the ...

Launched in 2001 by Tuareg guitarists Keddou Ag Ossad and Sanou Ag Ahmed, founding members of the acclaimed world music outfit Tinariwen, Terakaft has honed a leaner, more stripped-down approach by ...

Last November, when Stephen Colbert invited members of Tinariwen onto his cable TV show, he made history of sorts: Never before had a “desert blues” band gabbed about their lives — and performed — on ...

“Desert Blues”, the usual tag for Saharan Tuareg bands like Terakaft and Tinariwen, doesn’t do justice to their diversity. On their last album, Kel Tamasheq, and this fifth offering, Terakaft have ...

Terakaft has perfected the songs that launched this desert rock rebellion, with tracks like Aratan N Azawad," which insists that children must study Tuareg language and history, which is written in ...