L'Africain

Description

After Coup de gueule released in 2004, Tiken Jah Fakoly teamed up with producers Kevin Bacon and Jonathan Quarmby (who have worked with Ziggy Marley) to record his new album L'Africain. L'Africain was recorded in the studio that Tiken opened in Bamako (Mali), the H. Camara, named after the Ivorian comedian who hosted him in his early days and who has since been assassinated by death squads. This is also the first time that the musicians who usually accompany him on tour have come together in the studio. From Bamako to London to Paris, the producers give the entire album this astonishing "roots" futuristic touch, making L'Africain both the most traditional and the most contemporary album of Tiken to date. This balance is due as much to the addition of hip hop programming, the use of samples (Yéyé by Geoffrey Oreyma on Non à l'Excision), as to the involvement of Manding instruments (with the exceptional participation of kora player Toumani Diabaté on Ma Côte d'Ivoire).