Suba

Omar Sosa & Seckou Keita's debut album as a duo, Transparent Water, came out in 2017 and was a transporting set encompassing Chinese sheng and Japanese koto as well as Sosa's Afro-Cuban piano and Keita's lush West African kora. For their sophomore set, the duo reunite with Venezuelan percussionist Gustavo Ovalles and dextrous water percussionist and electronics hand Steve Argüelles, along with cellist Jaques Morelenbaum and flautist Dramane Dembélé.

Suba means ‘Sunrise’ in Mandinka, and the set was written and recorded during the global lockdown – the sun rising on a different kind of world for us all – and the music stands as a paean, says Keita, to ‘peace, hope and unity… when everything's falling apart little by little, the one thing we have inside ourselves is a divine connection with our inner voice.’ This is music to foster that connection, from the restrained opener ‘Kharit’ (Friend) through the circling, pulsing ‘Allah Léno’, Keita's rich voice gliding over Sosa's perfect touch on the piano, never overplayed. Cello comes to the fore on ‘Korason’, while Dembélé's flute graces ‘Voices on the Sea’, a sad, swaying anthem to the victims of forced movement across the world's oceans, and the deeply mournful lament of ‘Rei's Ray’, an album highlight.