Nemo

Kadialy Kouyate is a Longtime London-based kora player. A maestro of the West African 21-string harp-Lute, he is also a respected consultant, educator and in-house composer at institutions including SOAS, OiLy Cart and the Royal Shakespeare Company. In demand as a sideman for a wealth of projects including those by Brazilian percussionist Adriano Adewale, Venezuelan harpist Leonard Jacome and Sheffield all-stars Rafiki Jazz, Kadialy has proved himself a versatile solo artist whose humanity seems to shimmer from the strings.

Where last year's release, Taling Dimalu: Beautiful Tales, was a gorgeous waterfall of stately sounds and soft, keening vocals, this new work sees the Senegalese artist rocking out in ways fierce and surprising. Nemo means ‘Blessings’ in Wolof, Kadialy's mother tongue, and this glass half-full aesthetic buoys an album rooted in the traditional griot repertoire. It is given a contemporary vibe by a tight-knit crew on bass, guitar, percussion and intermittently bombastic kit drums, the driving rhythms leavened by Griselda Sanderson's fiddle playing and the sparkling patterns of Kadialy's kora.

This time around, too, it's Kadialy's strong deep voice that impresses, whether on the Youssou N’Dour-esque opener ‘Ye Nale’, the rollicking, perfectly phrased ‘Agna Bara’ and the alternately mellifluous and punchy ‘Mamadou’, recorded live. More kora solos, or even more extended kora passages, would have been welcome. No matter: bravo, again.