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NEWS

Juno-winner Kiran Ahluwalia collaborates with legendary Malian desert blues band Tinariwen

Aam Zameen: Common Ground - already available in Canada
Release date USA - September 27, 2011
Release date Europe - September 26, 2011

Although the Sahara desert is thousands of miles from the Indian subcontinent and shares no physical common ground, in the past year a unique musical territory has been created enjoining the two. Having previously merged her music with sounds as diverse as Portuguese fado and Celtic fiddle, on this captivating new recording, award-winning Canadian singer Kiran Ahluwalia embraces her love of Saharan desert blues and collaborates with two Tuareg groups; the legendary Tinariwen and up-and-coming fellow tribesmen, Terakaft.

The album is a sea change from her previous work and perhaps the most persuasive fusing of South Asian and West African music ever realized. Titled Aam Zameen: Common Ground, it will be released in the USA and Europe in September, 2011.

After many months of developing ideas for this collaboration, the tipping point for Kiran came when she met famed Tinariwen and Robert Plant producer, Justin Adams while on tour in Europe in 2009. He quickly agreed to produce the collaborative sessions and helped start a dialogue between Kiran and Tinariwen's leader Ibrahim Ag Alhabib - the man credited with inventing the modern Tuareg electric guitar style.

To provide a gateway to the musical common ground she was seeking, Kiran had a specific song in mind. "I knew it would be compelling to have a song from the South Asian Islamic tradition performed with Muslims from Mali" says Ahluwalia, "and I could think of nothing better than the Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan classic, Mustt Mustt. The use of hand claps and the call and response between the main vocalist and the rest of the group's singers are common to both qawwali music and the Tuareg's own music".

Soon sessions with both Tinariwen and Terakraft took place in France and the results were beyond all expectations. Sessions at Realworld Studios in the UK followed (where Ghanian ritti player and long time Justin Adams collaborator, Juldeh Camara wove his melodic magic into several songs) and by early summer, the album was completed and sent off to Grammy Award winning producer Peter Moore for mastering.

By any measure, Aam Zameen: Common Ground, is a remarkable document of the life-changing musical journey Ahluwalia has travelled, and it establishes her as an innovator who looks beyond her own heritage, to create a musical world where geographic boundaries no longer apply.