{"id":7684,"date":"2013-09-17T14:01:50","date_gmt":"2013-09-17T14:01:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stylusmagazine.ca\/?p=7684"},"modified":"2013-09-17T14:01:50","modified_gmt":"2013-09-17T14:01:50","slug":"ballake-sissoko-at-peace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/2013\/09\/17\/ballake-sissoko-at-peace\/","title":{"rendered":"Ballak\u00e9 Sissoko \u2013 At Peace"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"cd_ballakesissoko_atpeace\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Although most of his latest album, At Peace,<\/em> was recorded in western France, Ballak\u00e9 Sissoko is one of the world\u2019s most highly regarded players of the kora, a 21-stringed instrument that sounds somewhere between a harp and a guitar. Sissoko, who grew up playing in Mali, has come to be one of the best-known kora players in the world and is also respected as an innovator who helped to popularize the use of guitar chord progressions on the instrument.<\/p>\n

Sissoko says the title of this album reflects his need to put in time building a connection before playing with anyone, and the payoff of his approach becomes evident upon hearing the incredible level of comfort and ability he shares with collaborators. There is no vocal work on the album, but the music is expressive enough that a careful listener will be rewarded with frequent blasts of virtuosity and whimsy thanks to the large number of first takes that made the cut.<\/p>\n

The tone of Sissoko\u2019s kora is addictively hypnotic, and the album has several standout tracks. \u201cBadjourou\u201d features an insistent balafon beat over which Sissoko invites guitars and a cello to join him in melodic play, and it is delightful to hear. \u201cKalata Diata\u201d features a light-hearted treatment of a playful melody, and sounds like one of the most polished compositions of the bunch. \u201cN’tomikorobougou,\u201d a sweeping kora\/guitar piece that was recorded in Sissoko\u2019s courtyard, features some gorgeous playing \u2013 a couple of times the musicians can be heard feeding each other vocables of palpable satisfaction; to hear it feels like eavesdropping on some beautiful secret. Sissoko may be working in an idiom that is unfamiliar to most listeners in this part of the world, but fans of sensitive and masterful musicianship will surely surrender to the quality of this disc. (Six Degrees, \u00a0sixdegreesrecords.com<\/a>) Daniel Emberg<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Although most of his latest album, At Peace, was recorded in western France, Ballak\u00e9 Sissoko is one of the world\u2019s most highly regarded players of the kora, a 21-stringed instrument that sounds somewhere between a harp and a guitar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61],"class_list":["post-7684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-around-the-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7684\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}