The Sky is the Same Colour Everywhere

In recent years the kora has proven to be remarkably adaptable in duetting with non-African instruments. On The Sky is the Same Colour Everywhere we are treated to a new and previously unheard combination as Toumani Diabaté teams up with Iran's Kayhan Kalhor, the leading player of the kamancheh (Persian spike fiddle). Toumani's kora has 21 strings and is plucked; Kalhor's kamenchech has just four strings and is bowed. Yet they sound as if they were made for each other as Persian and Mandé traditions intertwine seamlessly. The two virtuosi first performed together at a festival in Germany in 2016 when they played for 90 improvised minutes without rehearsal. A short European tour followed and by the time they went into the studio in Paris after the final tour date, the musical ideas had developed into something more fully-formed, although the spirit is still intuitive and unpremeditated.

The opener ‘Wayfarers of the Legends’ starts with a mournful, desert blues-like phrase from Kalhor which Toumani answers with a minor key arpeggio. On ‘Whereto’ Toumani starts the conversation in a major key and Kalhor responds with a melody of graceful, classical elegance. And so the dialogue continues back and forth between them for almost an hour of spontaneous stringed magic. Glorious.