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Stephen · 11-11-2012, 06:10 PM

I think this album does a wonderful job of capturing the tone of the kora and shows off Toumani Diabaté's mastery of the instrument. It's certainly a lovely instrument with some great acoustics, I guess most closely related to the harp. Toumani Diabate has collaborated extensively with other artists throughout his career but I'm not sure there is quite enough variation here to carry an entire album unaccompanied. There are some great tracks but some seem overly long or florid and even the addition of some basic percussion or vocals would probably be enough to introduce some needed texture to the album. On the whole I'd say it is a good album, worth a listen in the context of exploring the myriad of great African musicians.

11-11-2012, 06:10 PM	#2 (permalink)
Stephen I sleep in your hat Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: Melbourne, Vic. Aus. Posts: 1,846	I think this album does a wonderful job of capturing the tone of the kora and shows off Toumani Diabaté's mastery of the instrument. It's certainly a lovely instrument with some great acoustics, I guess most closely related to the harp. Toumani Diabate has collaborated extensively with other artists throughout his career but I'm not sure there is quite enough variation here to carry an entire album unaccompanied. There are some great tracks but some seem overly long or florid and even the addition of some basic percussion or vocals would probably be enough to introduce some needed texture to the album. On the whole I'd say it is a good album, worth a listen in the context of exploring the myriad of great African musicians.