Hunter Folk Vol 1: Tribute to Toumani Koné

Mali’s Nfaly Diakité is a virtuoso of the donso ngoni, an eight-stringed antelope skin harp favoured by the donsow, the Bambara animist hunters of which Diakité is a member. After learning from two masters of the instrument, Diakaria Diakité and Oumar Sidibé, and making a name for himself in his country, Nfaly was asked by percussionist Ibrahim Sarr to join the BKO Quintet, a Malian supergroup of sorts, ‘with whom he recorded an album and toured Europe and the US.’ Recorded in Bamako in 2020, Hunter Folk Vol 1, his first solo album, acts as a tribute to the storyteller and poet Toumani Koné. With Diakité the lone player, the album finds him accompanying his donso ngoni playing with the scraped metallic rhythms of a keregne. ‘Mogote Diabeye’ (No One Can Please Everyone) – a new interpretation of a classic song from the repertoire of Wassolo hunters’ folk music – is a fine example of his craft, with the sparse, cyclical rhythms of the donso ngoni and keregne forming a hypnotic backing for Diakité’s beguiling vocals.