Blick Bassy trails new album with urgent aqua vitae eco-warning

Blick Bassy releases his fourth album, Madiba, via the InFiné imprint on May 26. The follow-up to his much-lauded 1958, which bagged Blick the Best African Album prize at 2020’s edition of the Songlines Music Awards, it sees the Cameroonian-born singer-songwriter locked deep in an incantatory, introspective vibe, a minimalistic aesthetic heavily informed by modern-day troubadours such as Bon Iver and James Blake.

Containing a dozen ‘fables’ sung in Blick’s native Bassa tongue, these heartfelt paeans confront head-on the global climate crisis and specifically issue relating to the availability of that most valuable of earthly commodities, water, the element providing Madiba with its name.

Speaking about the inspiration behind the new album, Blick says: “It is a question of showing a form of respect, of connecting with the living, of imagining through these songs a world in which we could live in coherence with our environment.”

A lead single from the album, ‘Hola Mè’, was released to coincide with 2023’s World Water Day on March 22, with Blick championing the work of non-profit organisation Water.org as the track went public, using his platform to raise awareness of the international water crisis, and the NGO’s mission to ensure universal access to safe water sanitation.

Blick Bassy’s Madiba will be reviewed in the July issue of Songlines. Never miss an issue – subscribe today