Nicole Mitchell And Ballaké Sissoko Bamako Chicago Sound System

Shimmering columns of light will guide you, a grand synesthesia riding on a kaleidoscope, oscillating between hushed moments, where sound unfolds the firmament, unfurled like a cloak upon the shoulders of the real world. Listen: this is not a “track”, a circular appendage looped around a spindle and activated by some muscular stone on stylus. Too many people bled for the diamond there, too many questions remain trapped in the groove. What to do then, besides move the listener beyond the traps of expected sonics and into a menagerie, away from the strange hook of the promise of shelf-space or the obsessive atonal drone of, in fact, obsession? Here it is: live on wax, as it were, a breathing, living thing, pulsating on its own, lifting into the ether to announce itself, to nestle into the crevices of your dusty IKEA storage units. Move this mysticism in!

New quartet Sissoko Segal Parisien Peirani presents "Les Égarés" (The wandering), an album recorded by two virtuoso duos (Sissoko-Segal and Peirani-Parisien), who for years have excelled in the art of cross-fertilising sounds and transcending genres.

With his new solo album Djourou, Malian composer Ballaké Sissoko connects with artists from distant horizons. Djourou is the cord that connects me to other people, says Ballake Sissoko with characteristic simplicity. It is a magnificent distillation of that same art: the art of being yourself and being with others. It combines pieces in which Ballake converses, all alone, with his kora, and others in which he takes palpable pleasure in dialoguing with musicians whose contributions come across like declarations of love. Ballaké links with the singer Camille, the band Feu!Chatterton, famous French MC Oxmo Puccino, the clarinetist Patrick Messina, the singer Piers Faccini, Salif Keïta's sacred voice, the gifted kora-player Sona Jobarteh, alongside cellist and longtime musical partner, Vincent Segal. Ballaké is an improviser and prodigy who is still reinventing himself and who takes his art to explore other worlds. Djourou presents the Malian kora players music in all its multi-faceted forms: intimate and universal, singular and plural, solo or in conversation.

In November 2022 world-renowned kora player Ballaké Sissoko and acclaimed guitarist Derek Gripper spend just three hours recording a wordless album together. The kora and guitar in the hands of masters - a session where New Ancient Strings meets One Night On Earth.