The room › Artists › Tinariwen
Where to start with Tinariwen
Start with Aghregh Medin (Hassan's Song) — Emmaar, 2014. That is the track sitting closest to the centre of all 46 Tinariwen tracks in Zubissou Sounds — a listening room of 14,971 tracks placed one at a time by hand, not an algorithm.
This page is not a discography and not a ranking. It describes exactly one thing: the 46 Tinariwen tracks that one person put in one room, and where they sit relative to each other. The starting point above is chosen by a rule you can check — of the 46 tracks, it is the one nearest the average position on the four knobs the room runs on, and where two sit equally close the one on a named record wins. Nothing here calls any record better than any other.
Three ways in
The one track, if you only play one
Aghregh Medin (Hassan's Song) — Emmaar, 2014. Of the 45 Tinariwen tracks here that have actually been listened to, this one sits closest to the average of them across the four knobs the room runs on. The other 1 arrived carrying the default for their genre, and averaging a placeholder in would move the centre towards nothing. It is the least surprising thing among the tracks that were read, which is what an entry point should be.
Only one entry point is offered for Tinariwen. The knob readings across these tracks sit too close together to mark out honest opposite ends, and inventing two would be worse than admitting it.
Where Tinariwen sits in the room
Zubissou Sounds does not have playlists or genres you click. It has knobs. Every track carries a position on each one, set by hand when the track was added, and you find music by setting the room to a state rather than by searching for a name. These are Tinariwen's average coordinates and the range they cover.
| Knob | Average | Range | Low → high |
|---|---|---|---|
| mood | 50 | 45–52 | melancholy → euphoric |
| energy | 52 | 40–52 | ambient → driving |
| density | 54 | 38–55 | sparse → wall |
| head · body | 62 | 55–62 | cerebral → groove |
All four run 0–100. They are placed by a person, not derived from audio analysis or from any streaming service's feature data.
What is here, record by record
| Album | Year | Tracks |
|---|---|---|
| Aman Iman: Water Is Life | 2007 | 12 |
| Emmaar | 2014 | 11 |
| Elwan | 2017 | 11 |
| Amassakoul | 2004 | 11 |
| Imidiwan: Companions | 2009 | 1 |
Every Tinariwen track in the room
| Track | Album | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Aldhechen Manin | Amassakoul | 2004 |
| Alkhar Dessouf | Amassakoul | 2004 |
| Amassakoul 'N' 'Ténéré | Amassakoul | 2004 |
| Amidinin | Amassakoul | 2004 |
| Arawan | Amassakoul | 2004 |
| Assoul | Amassakoul | 2004 |
| Chatma | Amassakoul | 2004 |
| Chet Boghassa | Amassakoul | 2004 |
| Eh Massina Sintadoben | Amassakoul | 2004 |
| Oualahila Ar Tesninam | Amassakoul | 2004 |
| Ténéré Daféo Nikchan | Amassakoul | 2004 |
| Ahimana | Aman Iman: Water Is Life | 2007 |
| Assouf | Aman Iman: Water Is Life | 2007 |
| Awa Didjen | Aman Iman: Water Is Life | 2007 |
| Cler Achel | Aman Iman: Water Is Life | 2007 |
| Ikyadarh Dim | Aman Iman: Water Is Life | 2007 |
| Imidiwan Winakalin | Aman Iman: Water Is Life | 2007 |
| Izarharh Tenere | Aman Iman: Water Is Life | 2007 |
| Mano Dayak | Aman Iman: Water Is Life | 2007 |
| Matadjem Yinmixan | Aman Iman: Water Is Life | 2007 |
| Soixante Trois | Aman Iman: Water Is Life | 2007 |
| Tamatant Tilay | Aman Iman: Water Is Life | 2007 |
| Toumast | Aman Iman: Water Is Life | 2007 |
| Imazaghen n Adagh (Touareg Of The Adagh) | Imidiwan: Companions | 2009 |
| Aghregh Medin (Hassan's Song) | Emmaar | 2014 |
| Arhegh Danagh | Emmaar | 2014 |
| Chaghaybou | Emmaar | 2014 |
| Emajer | Emmaar | 2014 |
| Imdiwanin Ahi Tifhamam | Emmaar | 2014 |
| Imidiwan Ahi Sigdim | Emmaar | 2014 |
| Koud Edhaz Emin | Emmaar | 2014 |
| Sendad Eghlalan | Emmaar | 2014 |
| Tahalamot | Emmaar | 2014 |
| Timadrit in Sahara | Emmaar | 2014 |
| Toumast Tincha | Emmaar | 2014 |
| Arhegh ad annàgh | Elwan | 2017 |
| Assàwt | Elwan | 2017 |
| Hayati | Elwan | 2017 |
| Imidiwàn n-àkall-in | Elwan | 2017 |
| Ittus | Elwan | 2017 |
| Nizzagh Ijbal | Elwan | 2017 |
| Nànnuflày | Elwan | 2017 |
| Sastanàqqàm | Elwan | 2017 |
| Talyat | Elwan | 2017 |
| Tiwàyyen | Elwan | 2017 |
| Ténéré Tàqqàl | Elwan | 2017 |
Near neighbours in this room
These are the artists whose average knob position sits nearest to Tinariwen's in this room. It is a coordinate match, not a claim that they sound alike.
- Where to start with Mitch Murder — synthwave, 15 tracks
- Where to start with Can — art rock, 10 tracks
- Where to start with Maitro — vaporwave, 41 tracks
What the open databases say
MusicBrainz lists Tinariwen as a group, from Kidal, Mali and formed in 1982. Its contributors tag the artist desert blues, touareg, tishoumaren and african. These are the open database's facts, not mine — you can check them against the MusicBrainz entry.
Questions
How many Tinariwen tracks are in Zubissou Sounds?
There are 46, across 5 albums. 46 of them carry a date, running from 2004 to 2017. That is the whole of what this room holds — it is one person's collection, not a discography.
Is this a best-of, or a ranking?
No. Nothing here is ranked and no track is called better than another. The starting point is picked by arithmetic — the track closest to the centre of all the others on four measured axes — and the rule is printed above so you can disagree with it.
Where do the knob numbers come from?
They are set by hand, one track at a time, by the person who added the track. They are not audio analysis and not a Spotify feature. Mood, energy, density and the head/body balance each run 0 to 100. 45 of these 46 tracks have been read that way. The other 1 arrived with the default for their genre and nobody has listened to them yet, so they are left out of the centre, the ends and the spread quoted above.
Can I listen to these here?
Not yet from this page. Zubissou Sounds is in private beta — the room itself plays through Spotify, and 46 of these 46 tracks are matched to a Spotify ID and ready to play the moment you are in. The waitlist form is at the bottom of this page.