Kel Assouf


Kel Assouf is a Tuareg musical group making "Tuareg rock" with electronic influences. The band's singer, songwriter, and guitarist is Anana Harouna; their producer is Sofyann Ben Youssef.
Kel Assouf, in Tamasheq, means "nostalgia" and "son of eternity".
Their third album, Black Tenere, released in 2019 employs drum lines from the Roland TR-808 and heavy guitar riffs. Robin Denselow, writing in The Guardian, gave Black Tenere four out of five stars, describing the music as "how the music of the Sahara sounds once it has migrated to Europe and fused with other influences".

Discography


Members

Anana Harouna was born in Niger and lived in Libya during the Tuareg rebellion of the early 1990s, like the band members of Tinariwen, with whom he has performed. He formed Kel Assouf while arriving in Brussels in 2006.
Sofyann Ben Youssef is Tunisian, and produced the albums Tikounen and Black Tenere. With his keyboards he adds bass lines, and occasionally plays frame drum in live performances.
Currently the band is composed of a minimalist trio with Anana on guitar and vocals, Olivier Penu on drums and Alan Van Rompuy on keyboards.