Ballake Sissoko/vincent Segal: Chamber Music
Label: NO FORMAT Catalog: NF14 Format: CD Ballaké Sissoko Vincent Segal1 Chamber Music 2 Oscarine 3 Houdesti 4 Wo Yé N'gnougobine 5 Historie De Molly 6 "Ma-Ma" FC 7 Regret à kader barry 8 Halinkata Djoubé 9 Future 10 Mako Mady For any musician, playing as a duo is an experience that definitely stands apart. It pursues the ideal of the one-on-one, the context where the voices of the protagonists fuse together inside the crucible of common thought, and where the notion of sharing is placed at the very origins of an instrument's movement. It requires not only exceedingly high quality in the discourse, but also an exceptional listening-quality. Within a duo, the ear-the first authentic instrument of the musician-is where everything is played. This art of conversation based on understanding, on the attentiveness of one musician towards the other, is developed here by kora player Ballaké Sissoko and cellist Vincent Segal to its highest degree of exactness. Chamber Music is an album that might have remained a mere sound-document that testified to a brief encounter within a mixed-breed cultural context. Fortunately, it's much more than that. Formerly stable-mates at the same label (Label Bleu), the two men began by taking time to forge a close, personal bond of friendship. The idea of working together on an album germinated in Ballaké Sissoko's mind a few years ago; Sissoko had been present at a concert given by Bumcello at the Amiens Jazz Festival, where Vincent Segal had been playing with Cyril Atef, the other half of the explosive Bumcello duo. But there was no need for either to precipitate matters. As the Malian musician says, "It was important to get to know each other musically. For quite some time we got together at Vincent's home whenever I was in Paris, and we also played a few concerts. We built our complicity step by step. Today, when we play, we understand each other without saying a word: one look is enough. Our hearts are together." What the listener hears in Chamber Music is both rare and precious: two sensibilities in unison, on the same wavelength, creating music which, literally, follows naturally. The vibrating sketches of Chamber Music naturally confirm their vision: stripped of all superfluous material, they go straight to the heart of the prime, overwhelming truth of music Price: $23.98 |