Amassakoul

Tartit are a group of musicians from the Timbuktu area of Mali, which explains the similarity of this music to that of their better known neighbor Ali Farka Toure. He draws heavily on Songhai and Tuareg traditions, while Tartit are Tuareg tribes people whose nomadic lifestyle seems to have prepared them well the for the international tours they now find themselves undertaking. Onstage they are a picture of grace and dignity with the men’s faces veiled and the women's proudly exposed--a unique reversal of the usual dress codes found in many Islamic cultures. Their songs are based on timeless hypnotic grooves created with only the sparsest arrangements. Unlike that other well known Tuareg group Tinariwen, the music of Tartit is largely "unplugged! ".