BAMANAN

On the surface of it, Irish-born, US-based stadium rock producer Jacknife Lee seems an improbable choice to helm the debut solo album by Mali’s Rokia Koné. Lee’s credits include U2, REM, The Killers and Taylor Swift’s multi-million selling Red, while Koné first came to our attention with the feminist supergroup Les Amazones d’Afrique, singing alongside the likes of Angélique Kidjo and Kandia Kouyaté. Yet it proves to be an inspired pairing in which Lee, who admits he knew little about Malian music, embraced the opportunity ‘to switch from being the person who had the most amount of knowledge in the room to the one saying “I don’t have a clue what I’m doing but let’s just see what happens”.’

In the event, his electronic soundscapes are perfectly judged, somehow emphasising the stark beauty of Koné’s keening, melismatic voice rather than overwhelming it, as the cluttered production of Doctor L sometimes did on the two Les Amazones albums. Lee’s arrangements range from the spare and haunting synths of ‘Bi Ye Tulonba Ye’ and the simple minor key piano chords on ‘N’yanyan’ to the dense, simmering rhythms of ‘Anw Tile’ and the spiky guitars of ‘Dunden’. Something of a triumph.