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Album Review
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Signal to Noise Magazine, Album Review >>
Ballaké Sissoko
Vincent Segal
Chamber Music
Six Degrees CD/DL
Kora player Ballaké Sissoko also hails from Mali, and the mostly instrumental Chamber Music is also comprised of string instrument duets. But where Sahel Folk feels like it still has the desert sand on its feet, this album is much more a product of the interconnected modern world. Despite being nearly a decade younger than Touré, Sissoko is a much more traveled and recorded musician. This gives his playing a certain flexibility, which serves him well as he encounters the French cellist Vincent Segal. The rhythms on Chamber Music canter instead of lope, and Sissoko constructs ornate frameworks around Segal’s pop-indebted melodies with the confidence of a guy who’s no stranger to cross-cultural collaboration. But the music never feels compromised despite the prevailing sunny vibe. The duo’s melodies may be sweet, but never saccharine, and their permutations are so elaborate and finely articulated that the album’s name feels earned, not claimed. 03/21/11
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