Ali Farka TourŽ & Toumani DiabatŽ

COMPOSERS: Ali Farka Touré & Toumani Diabaté
LABELS: World Circuit
ALBUM TITLE: In the Heart of the Moon
WORKS: In the Heart of the Moon
CATALOGUE NO: WC072

It sounds like an established partnership made in heaven, and demonstrates a rapport that usually only comes from years spent playing together. But this beautiful album of duets by two of Mali’s foremost musicians actually represents their first significant collaboration. Brought together in a makeshift studio for the very first time by producer Nick Gold (Mister Buena Vista, if you will), they recorded three short unrehearsed sessions over consecutive days, revisiting a repertoire of Malian songs that mostly date from the late 1950s and early ’60s, known to both through familial, professional and folkloric connections – some of which go back several centuries. The minimal accompaniment added later enhances rather than intrudes on their wonderfully flowing, acoustic meditations, with Toumani Diabaté’s rippling kora taking most of the melodic leads, and Ali Farka Touré’s guitar providing counterpoint. The good news is that this is the first of three albums they have recently completed. And there’s another in the pipeline… Jon Lusk