Cissoko Heritage

Born in the Casamance region of southern Senegal, Maher Cissoko’s claim to be the 73rd generation of a griot family of kora players may be a slight exaggeration as that would take us back to a time before the Malian empire, but he’s nevertheless an heir to a long and proud tradition. He met his Swedish wife Sousou when she was studying kora in Senegal and the couple subsequently made their home in Sweden, where they live with their two children. As a duo they have recorded four albums together, the most recent of which was Made of Music, reviewed in the June 2018 issue (#138). As a solo artist Maher also released Kora Fo, which impressed me with its original compositions played with a delightfully light and feathery touch (reviewed in the July 2017 issue, #129).

His second solo album offers more of the same – although the female backing vocals suggest Sousou has not retired from the fray. He’s clearly a virtuosic kora player, but there’s no showboating and he uses the instrument as a subtle, melodic accompaniment to his gentle baritone voice. His forte is syncopated acoustic Afro-pop heard to best effect on opener ‘Thiossane’ and ‘Kano’, but there are elements of Youssou-style mbalax on ‘Dor Waar’, a touch of synths on ‘Kedo’ and a dreamily lilting lullaby on the closer ‘Mama.