Ballaké Sissoko & Derek Gripper

In terms of guitar and kora duos, it’s hard to think much beyond the inspired collaboration of Toumani Diabaté and Ali Farka Touré on 2005’s In the Heart of the Moon. The stringed dialogue here between the South African guitarist Derek Gripper and kora maestro Ballaké Sissoko is something special, though. Gripper found his way onto Songlines’ radar with his extraordinary 2012 album One Night on Earth on which he transposed classical kora music for six-stringed acoustic guitar, a task most imagined to be impossible. That record included a composition by Sissoko and so when they met for a series of London concerts last year and recorded this collection of improvisations, it seemed like coming full circle. Since recording One Night on Earth, Gripper’s mastery of the ancient music of the jelis and griots has grown ever more profound, opening up nothing less than a new direction in modern western guitar music. The seven instrumentals here include three joint improvisations in the classical West African style and three more playful pieces based around compositions by Gripper. In truth, the provenance of the material barely matters, for what stands out is the intuitive dialogue between two master musicians creating a summit meeting of gilded virtuosity and beauty.