Peter's career in music got momentum when, in the beginning of the nineteen nineties, he moved to Ivory Coast where he became the lead vocalist with local reggae band Mystic Vibration. But Salim wanted more, created his own style, a mix of traditional Nigerien music, blues and afrobeat he baptized hayé hayé groove, and founded his own band Mystic Ténéré. In 2004 Peter relocated to Paris where he started focusing on a solo career. In 2007 he released his solo debut, 'Les Vautours', which was only distributed in Niger, followed by 'Hold Up De Pouvoir' (immediately banned in his home country), two years later. Salim would have to wait for the coup of May 2010 to happen, finally to be able to return to Niger.

And now there's 'Nature', an excellent afro-reggae album for which Salim managed to entice colleagues like Cheick Tidiane Seck, Mamani Keita, Winston McAnuff, Devi Reed and Lyricson to lend a hand. Highlights include title track 'Nature', which has already become the anthem of Racines Profondes (a non-governmental apolitical and non-religious organization committed to sustainable development by focusing on ecology, health and education to wars), of which Peter is also an ambassador, and 'Soborro', a duet with Cheick Tidiane Seck about malaria (note the mosquito buzzing throughout the song), still in the top five of the leading causes of death in Africa. No reggae, but highly recommended, is 'Paris Life', about the misadventures of an illegal refugee in Paris: "La vie à Paris est dur! Paris life, everything is money...", in which Salim states the only way to halt the mass migration from Africa is that the West finally starts paying fair prices for the wealth in minerals and agricultural products it hauls away from the continent. A tad surprising is 'Indignation', not so much because of the theme of the song, but because it is a tribute to Stéphane Hessel (Berlin, October 20, 1917 - 27 February 2013), diplomat, ambassador, writer, former activist with the French resistance and survivor of the Nazi concentration camps, which also includes excerpts from his essay 'Indignez-vous!' ('Time For Outrage!'), in which, among other things, he discusses the growing inequality between rich and poor, the way France treats its illegal immigrants, the lack of press freedom, the need to protect the environment, strengthening the French welfare state and the appalling situation of the Palestinian people, but also called for peaceful resistance. Delicious West-African desert pop is 'Amaanaa', a love song and duet with Mamani Keita that Salim wrote as a tribute to his wife after the birth of their twins. Stylistically very different from the rest of the tracks on 'Nature' is 'Ateideibey Jungle', roughly translated: "If I only had I known..." a call to the many spoiled upper-class youths in the Nigerien capital to stand on their own legs and make their own way in life instead of leaning on mom and dad; a combination with Lyricson and, as the title suggests, reggae/dancehall meets jungle. Classic afro-roots, and one of our personal favorites from 'Nature', is finally 'Gam City', in which Peter looks back on his youth in Gamkallé, a district of the Nigerien capital Niamey. A-class African reggae album!