At Peace

Description

In 2009, in the dead of night in Bamako, Mali, kora player Ballaké Sissoko and cellist Vincent Segal recorded the stripped-down dialogues of Chamber Music. Awarded a Victoire de la Musique and followed by 200 concerts around the world, this album garnered a harvest of praise that gave it instant classic status. Such a public and critical response could have sharpened the temptation to produce a Chamber Music, Vol. 2. But repetition is not a recipe that Ballaké Sissoko accommodates: his relationship with music does not suffer from inertia or laziness. Constantly revitalized by his daily practice and by the encounters that punctuate his journey (Toumani Diabaté, Taj Mahal, Ludovic Einaudi.), it expresses itself through a perpetually moving discourse, relying on the foundation of Mandinka melodies to better extend their scope and enrich them with new echoes. At Peace is a major step on this path that connects memory and invention, an acute knowledge of history and an unquenchable thirst for discovery. "I didn't want to redo Chamber Music," confirms Ballaké Sissoko, "but to continue in its vein." That's why Vincent Segal is back on board. As in Chamber Music, he brings his art as a sound engineer and his wandering inspiration as a cellist. As in Chamber Music, the setup is intimate and the tools are reduced to the essentials - no production tricks, no overdubs. The emphasis is on spontaneity, priority is given to first takes. But this time, the creative horizon opens up even further, while the circle of partners and the range of playing styles expand. Solo, duo, trio, quintet: in At Peace, Ballaké Sissoko varies positions, dynamics and pleasures, to give even more scope and vibrations to a repertoire rooted in the Mandinka tradition.