Keme Borama

This is the first internationally released recording from griot guitarist Tiecoro Sissoko and sadly it is a posthumous debut, Sissoko having died just weeks prior to its release. Sissoko is a well-known griot name in Mali and Tiecoro was from a large family of musicians. His father was the chief of the local village griots and his mother a renowned singer. He was also greatly influenced by two of his brothers, one a kora player, and the other a guitarist.

Keme Borama is a no-frills album of uncompromising traditional Malian music. Voice, acoustic guitar and an accompaniment of kora and ngoni (lute) is all that is required to make this an extremely enjoyable listening experience. There is a similar level of intensity and melancholy to that heard in the work of Boubacar Traore. Tiecoro has a pleasantly forceful and slightly harsh voice, which works rather well with the entirely acoustic and earthy instrumentation. Underneath his voice the three instruments interweave with beautiful runs of notes that feel spontaneous and entirely natural. Hopefully this will bring some belated, well-deserved attention to this under-exposed musician.