Invitation to Travel

Noise, the fury of war, the unleashing of madness, and tyrannies marked the twentieth century as a time of shadow. The elements of metal and steel, combined with emotions of hate and death, painted a backdrop many wished to leave behind.

The latest album by the Malian griot couple is centred around Bassekou Kouyate's adventurous lifejourney together with his wife, the worldwide praised singer, Amy Sacko. The Garana natives invites us onan intimate journey into their musical universe. It is also an invitation to travel to the source where it allbegan for Bassekou and his other long-time companion, his N’goni. Bassekou Kouyaté reveals the secretsbehind the beautiful love story between himself and his instrument. Amy and Bassekou chant to us abouttheir fears and hopes for the future, give philosophical advices and sing tributes to important people ofpresent and historical society of the Bambara Empire. New texts and re-interpretations of ancient texts,song in Bambara and Peul.

The latest album by the Malian griot couple is centred around Bassekou Kouyate's adventurous lifejourney together with his wife, the worldwide praised singer, Amy Sacko. The Garana natives invites us onan intimate journey into their musical universe. It is also an invitation to travel to the source where it allbegan for Bassekou and his other long-time companion, his N’goni. Bassekou Kouyaté reveals the secretsbehind the beautiful love story between himself and his instrument. Amy and Bassekou chant to us abouttheir fears and hopes for the future, give philosophical advices and sing tributes to important people ofpresent and historical society of the Bambara Empire. New texts and re-interpretations of ancient texts,song in Bambara and Peul.

The gestation of this project lasted two years. Anna Prohaska and Julius Drake finally concentrated their research on the themes of Eve, Paradise and banishment. Some songs were obvious choices, such as Fauré’s Paradis, in which God appears to Eve and asks her to name each flower and animal, or Purcell’s Sleep, Adam, sleep with its references to Genesis. But Anna Prohaska also wished to illustrate the cliché of the woman who brought original sin into the world and her status as a tempter who leads man astray, as in Brahms’s Salamander, Wolf’s Die Bekehrte or Ravel’s Air du Feu. In Das Paradies und die Peri, Schumann conjures up the image of Syria’s rose-covered plains. Bernstein also transports us to the desert with Silhouette. John Milton’s seventeenth-century masterpiece Paradise Lost was the inspiration for Charles Ives and Benjamin Britten, also featured in this very rich programme that constitutes an invitation to travel and reflection.

College returns with its third full length album, a rich, glowing and nostalgic synth-based offering reminiscent of previous works heard in ‘A Real Hero’ (Drive Soundtrack), but at the same time exploring a unique and conceptual world, ‘Shanghai’, giving College’s textural and atmospherical works a brand new dimension.

The gestation of this project lasted two years. Anna Prohaska and Julius Drake finally concentrated their research on the themes of Eve, Paradise and banishment. Some songs were obvious choices, such as Fauré's Paradis, in which God appears to Eve and asks her to name each flower and animal, or Purcell's Sleep, Adam, sleep with it's references to Genesis. But Anna Prohaska also wished to illustrate the cliché of the woman who brought original sin into the world and her status as a tempter who leads man astray, as in Brahms's Salamander, Wolf's Die Bekehrte or Ravel's Air du Feu.

The latest album by the Malian griot couple is centred around Bassekou Kouyate's adventurous lifejourney together with his wife, the worldwide praised singer, Amy Sacko. The Garana natives invites us onan intimate journey into their musical universe. It is also an invitation to travel to the source where it allbegan for Bassekou and his other long-time companion, his N’goni. Bassekou Kouyaté reveals the secretsbehind the beautiful love story between himself and his instrument. Amy and Bassekou chant to us abouttheir fears and hopes for the future, give philosophical advices and sing tributes to important people ofpresent and historical society of the Bambara Empire. New texts and re-interpretations of ancient texts,song in Bambara and Peul.