Tag Archive: Toumani Diabaté


Der Watzmann by David Casper Friedrich

“Old men must be explorers
Here and there does not matter
We must be still and still moving
Into another intensity”
– T.S. Eliot – ‘East Coker’ from The Four Quartets.

Had a hard day on the planet?

Need some soothing music that quietens the soul but doesn’t deaden the brain?

Throw away those New Age tapes of dolphin sounds or bland electro-acoustic loops and check out my top ten albums for restoring a sense of balance and awakening consciousness. Continue reading

Toumani Diabaté not at the office

The consistently excellent Verucchio Festival takes place every year in picturesque open air venues in a small hilltop town near Rimini in Emilia Romagna. The varied line up this year with two concerts a night includes Blonde Redhead, Seth Lakeman, José Gonsalez and an electronic night with BJ Neilsen & Hildur Gudnadottir.

The must see for me this year was Toumani Diabaté whose virtuoso kora playing I’ve long admired. Continue reading

Kora! Kora! Kora!

Toumani Diabaté’s new album, ‘The Mandé Variations’ ,is a masterpiece.
It is both meditative yet the same time spiritually uplifting.
In eight instrumentals he demonstrates his mastery of kora playing to produce a record that transcends cultural or geographical boundaries. Diabate describes it as combining the past and present to take the music into the future.
World circuit have posted a short but illuminating video on You Tube in which he talks about the album and demonstrates how he achieves this amazing sound.