Skyscrapers & Deities

There have been plenty of well-meaning summit meetings over the years between West African and European musicians, partnerships that have produced mannered, pleasant but ultimately unenthralling music. On paper, the coming-together of Malian balafon (xylophone) player Lansiné Kouyaté and French vibraphonist David Neerman could have been in danger of falling into the same trap.

But Skyscrapers & Deities, their second record together, following Kangaba in 2010 [reviewed in #62] makes more than polite small talk. As the record’s title suggests, what you hear is a fusion between the heavenly and the earthly; the angelic beauty of delicate balafon runs colliding against grittier sounds. Its ten songs push and pull, full of sparkle and intrigue. All tracks bar one are instrumental – ‘Haiti’ features a spoken-word cameo from Trinidadian poet Anthony Joseph – but interest never wavers. The invention of the pair, helped by a drummer and double bass player, grips the listener, whether it’s the unlikely marriage of pulsing balafon and snappy breakbeat drums on a cover of Serge Gainsbourg’s ‘Requiem Pour Un Con’ or Neerman’s willingness to hook his instrument up to some effects gadgetry.

While Kouyaté’s playing is pure West Africa, Neerman’s vibes often put us in mind of music from the other side of the continent – specifically Mulatu Astatké’s forward-facing Ethio-jazz. Indeed, with its diamond-hard kit drums and stabs of electronic modernity, at times this record is very reminiscent of Astatké’s collaboration with London’s Heliocentrics. Anyone who enjoyed their very fine Inspiration Information album could do much worse than turn their ears in the direction of this surprising and enlightening record.