[2] Following the outbreak of the Tuareg Rebellion in 1990, Bombino, along with his father and grandmother, was forced to flee to neighboring Algeria for safety.

Bebe asked him to join his band where he gained the nickname "Bombino", which is derived from the Italian word "bambino", meaning 'little child'.

While living in Algeria and Libya in his teen years, Bombino and his friends watched videos of Jimi Hendrix, Mark Knopfler and others to learn their styles.

[4] Filmmaker Hisham Mayet managed to track down and record Bombino and his electric band in 2007 during a wedding performance.

That recording takes up one side of the original vinyl release of Group Bombino – Guitars from Agadez, vol.

To celebrate the end of the conflict, a large concert was organized at the base of the Grand Mosque in Agadez, having received the blessing of the Sultan.

[10] The success of Agadez attracted many musical stars to Bombino including Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys.

[13] In the meantime, war broke out again in Mali, and a few months after that Bombino and Tinariwen played a show in Paris, where they confirmed the idea of their music as essentially rebellious.

It was produced by David Longstreth of Dirty Projectors Pitchfork's Andy Beta notes that the record "features a sublime iteration of desert blues that's both authentic and ambitious.

"[17] Then, on the day before Deran's release, Bombino was dubbed "the Sultan of Shred" by The New York Times,[18] a nickname that was then adopted by several news outlets around the world.