Ballake Sissoko

Ballaké Sissoko – Djourou (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 46:50 minutes | 496 MB | Genre: World, Desert Blues
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © No Format!

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 769; 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.
(more…)

Ballaké Sissoko – A Touma (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 39:34 minutes | 388 MB | Genre: World, Ethnic Fusion
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © No Format!

After the success of Djourou, the Malian virtuoso returns for an intimate t^ete `a t^ete with his kora – intimate yet simple and majestic.

Taking time off from the Djourou sessions, Ballak’e recorded these eight instrumental pieces in the intimate confines of the Chapelle Sainte-Apolline in Belgium. Together they proclaim, without need for further evidence, the heights of mastery and freedom that this discreet giant of global music has scaled in his forty-year-long career.
(more…)