The desert blues of the Tuaregs rarely reaches Balkan stages, so the show by Kader Tarhanine at the Mixtape 5 club in Sofia on December 3 is something genuinely different. The man hailed as one of the new princes of desert blues arrives with his band to bring the music of the Sahara to the heart of the Bulgarian capital.

Born in 1989, Abd Elkadir Sabou grew up in Tamanrasset, in southern Algeria, where as a child he built his own homemade guitar out of tin cans and started to play. He took his stage name from the song Tarhanine Tegla, which became an anthem for the Tuaregs scattered across the world. His music blends traditional Sahel rhythms with a rock edge and poetic lyrics in the Tuareg and Arabic languages.

Tarhanine is not just a musician but a voice of Saharan youth - he has worked with top Malian names like Fatoumata Diawara and Sidiki Diabaté, and his performances carry the stamp of an ambassador of Tuareg culture. Desert blues, the genre the world first met through Tinariwen, gains a newer, younger energy in his hands.

For a Balkan listener who wants something outside the usual genres, this is a rare chance to experience music from an entirely different world live. The show starts at 8 p.m., with a special guest in support. Tickets start at around 39 leva and up, sold through bilet.bg.