Tamikrest (ML) + support: Ba Balance

For two decades, Tamikrest has been a prominent voice in the international Saharan rock scene. The band’s music draws on the musical traditions of the Kel Tamasheq people and blends them with raw rock, hypnotic rhythms, and psychedelic guitars.

At the concert, you can experience music from Tamikrest’s sixth album, Assikel, which means “journey” or “journey through life” in Tamasheq. The album was recorded live on analog tape and features a raw, intimate sound that highlights the band’s chemistry and intense expression.

The songs range from energetic Ishumar rock to more contemplative musical passages. The lyrics revolve around exile, displacement, homesickness, and resistance, but also around a love of music and community.

Tamikrest was formed in 2006 and has since toured in Europe, Africa, North and South America, Japan, South Korea, and Australia. Today, the band is a leading representative of Kel Tamasheq music and a prominent name on the international rock scene.

Support: Ba Balance

Ba Balance is an award-nominated duo consisting of Danish guitarist Preben Carlsen and Gambian percussionist Salieu Dibba. They blend gritty desert rock with rhythms from Central and West Africa, seasoning their groove-driven sound with influences from psychedelic rock and blues.

“Rocking electric guitar and percussion duets, like an African White Stripes,” wrote a reviewer for the influential UK world-music magazine Songlines Magazine — a fitting description of the duo’s intense interplay between guitar and percussion.

The music is instrumental and takes the listener on a journey of catchy melodies, swinging grooves and wild solos, shaped through a challenging and close-knit interaction. Past and future meet in Ba Balance’s personal take on contemporary afro-blues, where modern stereo guitar sounds merge with ancient African instruments and rhythms.

The repertoire is composed by Carlsen and reflects his curiosity about the African continent and his many musical journeys there. At the same time, the music carries clear traces of his Western upbringing, with elements drawn from rock, jazz and blues — all unfolded in close and demanding interplay with longtime collaborator and percussion virtuoso Sal Dibba.

Both Carlsen and Dibba have performed with a wide range of international artists, including Toumani Diabaté, A.B. Crentsil, Tony Allen and Pee Wee Ellis. In Denmark, they have for more than a decade played alongside kora virtuoso Dawda Jobarteh and Danish-Malian bassist and singer Moussa Diallo.

Ba Balance was formed in 2019 to explore new musical paths with a deliberate focus on the stripped-down format of guitar and percussion. Their debut album Around the Crocodile Pond was released on One World Records in May 2020 and received significant international attention from radio stations and music critics. The album reached the Top 20 on the World Music Charts Europe, and Ba Balance were nominated for Danish Music Awards Roots 2020 and Danish Music Awards Blues 2021.