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.