A Touma

Little more than six months ago, Ballaké Sissoko released Djourou, a kora album of glorious hybridity, rooted in ancient griot tradition but transformed into an audaciously cosmopolitan melting pot via some thrilling collaborations with a range of often surprising and even improbable guests. Hot on its heels, A Touma is an all-acoustic solo companion piece.

Taking its title from a Bambara word meaning ‘This is the Moment’, A Touma finds Ballaké in what he calls a series of ‘solitary dialogues,’ with his instrument, improvising around traditional themes. Recorded in a Belgian chapel, the setting lends the recording a hushed intimacy and hallowed solemnity. Two of the tunes, ‘Demba Kunda’ and ‘Mande Tabolo’ were heard on Djourou, the only solo kora pieces on that record, and it’s fascinating to hear how Sissoko develops them here away from a studio environment. They’re joined by six other tunes that draw heavily on the classic Mande repertoire, including ‘Simbo Salaba’, inspired by the Epic of Sunjata, a narrative poem first collected by French scholars in West Africa at the end of the 19th century but with origins many centuries earlier.