The names won't be familiar to many, but this spare, acoustic recording--featuring a single kora and two singers--is sure to please connoisseurs of Manding griot music. So few contemporary West African recordings offer this kind of unadorned simplicity, but this one is especially surprising when you consider the source. When Frédéric Galliano launched his Frikiwa label a couple of years back, his first releases (and supporting tours) offered Malian traditional music repackaged as club dance grooves, with mixed results. Frikiwa seemed fundamentally about reshaping roots music to make it palatable to a young, international, urban audience. But when Afropop spoke to Galliano, he saw it somewhat differently. "I want to present a different perception of African music," he said. "Even if it is traditional, we can change the arrangements, the combinations, with or without machines."

With that in mind, this session brings together two Manding griots from different countries. Kora player and singer Ali Boulo Danto evokes the Manding culture of Senegal's southern Cassamance region, while Hadja Kouyate comes from a distinguished line of Manding griots in neighboring Guinea. Kouyate's uncle is the famous guitarist Manfila Kante, who made his name alongside Salif Keita in Les Ambassadeurs, and who contributes tasteful splashes of electric guitar to this album's centerpiece track, "Bakari." In addition, Kouyate is the brother of another great Guinean guitarist, also best known for his work with Salif Keita, Ousmane Kouyate.

But Hadja Kouyate needn't rely on her associations with the famous. She sings in a warm, powerful alto, beautifully expressive, and free of the stridency that sometimes marks the voices of griottes. A number of backing singers and percussionists contribute to the session, recorded at Studio 2000 in Dakar, Senegal, but Santo's elegant, lively kora playing and his and Kouyate's voices predominate throughout. You might say that this session combines the racing kora music of Cassamance and Gambia with the serene, elegant vocal tradition of Guinea. The selection favors up-tempo, minor key tunes. There are a number of compositions by the artists, but they are clearly rooted in older Manding compositions, and Santo does include an exciting solo kora rendition of the classic "Allah Laké."

One track, "Toukan" incorporates kora processed through a wah-wah pedal adding an unusual color without in any way detracting from the spare, acoustic character of the session. From its opening kora solo ("Djigui") to its melancholy lullaby closer ("Diéfadima"), this release is a welcome addition to the small catalogue of acoustic Manding recordings, and an intriguing new dimension in the work of the still emerging Frikiwa label.

Contributed by: Banning Eyre for www.afropop.org