Mariage

Description

THE 2ND ALBUM FROM THE SENEGALESE-SWEDISH COLLECTIVE 12 TRACKS – RHYTHMICALLY DENSE, SONICALLY AIRY, WITH UNPRECEDENTED STYLISTIC RICHNESS Wau Wau Collectif's second album, Mariage, is imbued with a new sense of purpose. Expanding on the inspiring themes of their critically acclaimed debut album Yaral Sa Doom (2021), this remote collaboration between musicians from Senegal and Swedish artist Karl Jonas Winqvist is even more stylistically expansive. Joyful songs sung by children collide with fuzzed-out guitar solos and hard-hitting hip-hop beats. Shimmering synths soar above balafon percussion and the versatile sounds of the 22-string kora. The familiar voices from the first album return with more explicitly political lyrics, while the music is both rhythmically dense and sonically weightless. "Yay Balma" revolves around the cyclical riffs of Jango Diabaté's xalam guitar, and the fuzzy tones and soaring saxophone solos of this song kick off the second side with a bang. "Pitchi Goubidi" offers a striking contrast, with the kora played like a harp and Gilbert Badji's raspy vocals about the "night bird" disappearing into dubbed-out chamber pop. Winqvist's omnichord returns to the forefront on "Yonou Natangue," a free-flowing jam that echoes the messages of Wau Wau Collectif's debut album, encouraging youth education to confront the social problems of modern-day Senegal.