Piers Faccini & Ballaké Sissoko

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.

It says much for Malian music that two of its greatest players, kora masters Toumani Diabaté and Ballaké Sissoko, are among its most determined innovators. Not content with weighty family legacies (the two are cousins), they have won international recognition for their instrument, the 21-string west African harp, in part through cross-culture collaborations. Diabaté’s latest, with the London Symphony Orchestra, is imminent, while here Sissoko has sought out an assortment of guests. Among them is cellist Vincent Ségal, with whom he has already cut two sublime albums, and who joins clarinet player Patrick Messina for a sprightly take on Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique.

Sample of the artists edited by the label Nø Førmat! between 2004 and 2016. The disc was sent to the subscribers of the Nø Førmat!