At Pioneer Works is the third album that Les Filles de Illighadad (Daughters of Illighadad) have recorded with Christopher Kirkley of Portland-based ethnographic label Sahel Sounds. That might not seem particularly significant, but it is. He's been a constant collaborator with the band, and like other Tuareg musicians, including Mdou Moctar (who appeared on the first Sahel Sounds comp Music from Saharan Cellphones), he's opened quite a few doors for them. Not the least of which are the doors of Brooklyn's Pioneer Works, where this album was tracked live in 2019.
The album contains some variations on songs that appeared on Les Filles's previous albums, 2017's Eghass Malan and 2016's self-titled, but is mostly stacked with fresh materials. Without a doubt, even the familiar tracks are genuine articles in their own right and it's worth hearing these songs again to revel in the versatility of each of their variations.
What separates Les Filles's music from other popular Tuareg and Malian music is the band's adoption of tente rhymes into their repertoire. This is actually very significant. Tente is usually a form of drum-lead (after a fashion, the base rhythm of the styles is performed with a mortar and pestle, which is played like a percussion instrument) choral music performed by women, while the "desert blues" guitar style that forms the core of Tinariwen's and Bombino's sound is traditionally played by men. However, the woman-led Les Filles manages a synthesis of the two, represents a transcendence of not just sound, but of prescribed social roles and definitions well.
Tradition is important to all cultures for sure, but the strength and meaning of a tradition, I think, is best measured by its flexibility- something which Les Fellies's incursions within, and excursions through, Tuareg folk demonstrates to be incredibly robust and adaptive. Specifically, Les Filles give these desert ballads a hypnotic, almost prayer-like quality. Imbuing them with something enchanting and inescapable- like the smell of fresh dirt after a rain, the way that shadows bow and then evaporate before the rising sun, or the simple wonder of a bird in flight.
