Toumast

Toumast is a group from Libya and Niger that has been active since 1990. It is founded around Moussa Ag Keyna and later includes Aminatou Goumar. The group works in a jazz context and is associated with desert blues, Tuareg music, and African blues.

History and formation

Toumast forms in the 1990s around Moussa Ag Keyna. In 1993, after years of combat and resistance, Moussa Ag Keyna is severely wounded and evacuated to France. Aminatou Goumar later joins him there. In Paris, their meeting with composer, arranger, and producer Dan Levy leads to the recording of the group’s album.

Themes and recordings

The music is presented as a testimony to years of combat and disillusion among the Touaregs. Its songs address themes central to the Ishumar tradition, including nostalgia for nomadic life, love, the bitterness of exile, and criticism of politics.

The group’s second album, Amachal, is part of its recorded output and is distributed in the UK by Real World Records.