Archipel

This highly accomplished French quartet, comprise three guitarists and a percussionist. Although they're an acoustic act, their attention to sound reproduction with zero compression adds a modern, spacey quality that takes them sometimes into electro-pop and sometimes ambient musical territories. Confirmed global travellers, their music has elements from different cultures – it's true global fusion.

Their previous albums Pariwaga and Wagamumbai were recorded in Burkina Faso and India respectively. Archipel is their fifth album and contains influences that they absorbed on recent tours in French Polynesia and the UK. Generally there is a Gallic flavour to Yapa's guitar playing – shades of flamenco and jazz, with some subtle African and Caribbean percussive rhythms. Two tracks have guest vocalists but it's predominantly an instrumental album. Magnificent Canadian singer Mélissa Laveaux, sounding quite similar to Lhasa de Sela, performs on the track ‘Phoenix’; and Salif Diarra and Baba Commandant from Burkina Faso sing on the track ‘Maya Karima’. An ambitious and very attractive fusion album, from a group that deserves much more exposure.