AFRICA EXPRESS PRESENTS MAISON DES JEUNES. From concerts in Lagos and Kinshasa to that remarkable train trip round Britain last summer, Africa Express has set out both to promote co-operation between African and western musicians and to constantly surprise. This new album was recorded in just one week in October in a youth club in Bamako, where young Malian musicians worked with celebrity producers. The result is a fresh, varied set that mixes ancient and modern. Moussa Traoré contributes a stately, charming blend of kora and French rap, produced by Damon Albarn; there’s a fine, soulful reworking of Salif Keita’s Yamore by 21-year-old Kankou Kouyaté; an insistent, exhilarating workout from the Yacouba Sissoko Band produced by Brian Eno; and exuberant guitar rock and desert blues from Songhoy Blues, a band from Timbuktu, where radical Islamists had attempted to ban music. Magnificent. (Robin Denselow, The Guardian)
2013 6 Dez