Tinariwen — Tassili

Tinariwen had intended to record at home in Tessalit, in northern Mali, but renewed conflict made it impossible. Instead the band and producer Ian Brennan set up in the rocky desert near Djanet, on the southern rim of the Tassili n'Ajjer plateau in southeastern Algeria, and worked there for three weeks.

Without mains power, the electric guitars that had defined the group's sound were set aside. What remains is acoustic guitar, handclaps, percussion and massed voices, recorded in the open at night. Brennan described it as "the least overdubbed, most live, band-centric and song-oriented record they have done."

Visitors made the journey out to the site: Kyp Malone and Tunde Adebimpe of TV on the Radio stayed eight days and sang on five tracks, Wilco's Nels Cline played on the opener, and Gregory Davis and Roger Lewis of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band contributed horns to "Ya Messinagh." The album won the Grammy for Best World Music Album in 2012.