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The ongoing propensity for cross-fertilising musical traditions from differing geographical locations and cultures, involving the collaboration of musicians with widely disparate backgrounds, reaches a new high with Jouer, Annarella and Django’s debut album.
This beguiling and seductive release connects Scandinavia and West Africa via two leading proponents: Swedish jazz flautist Annarella Sörlin and Malian ngoni harp master Django Diabaté. Whilst Annarella, hailing from Örebro, who plays piano and flute, is also training to be a psychologist, Django’s background differs considerably. Born into the Diabaté griot family in Mali, he is the cousin of the late Toumani Diabaté, considered by many to be the world’s foremost kora player, and the nephew of the master balafon player Kélétigui Diabaté, who passed away in 2012. Whilst originally from Mali, he settled in Dakar, the capital of Senegal; when not performing concerts, he crafts ngoni instruments.
The story of how the two artists came to collaborate and subsequently release this album is fairly straightforward, albeit serendipitous. Initially having met as part of another Afro-European project, the Wau Wau Collectif (who featured on a KLOF Monday Morning Brew back in January), the connection, mutual interest and respect for each other’s music was immediate. As with all tours, there was plenty of downtime, which the pair used to the full, jamming together on the tour bus, backstage and at hotels. Cognisant of the potential of the special and unique music created by their widely different instruments, they returned to Stockholm and Dakar and began laying down tracks for each other to share and elaborate upon. After 18 months of toil and craft, the appropriately titled Jouer (“to play” in French) was finished in May 2024.
A further vital element in both the naissance and ongoing development of the collaboration is the owner of the co-label Sing a Song Fighter, musician and producer Karl Jonas Winqvist, who first met Annarella in Senegal in 2016 at an artistic residence called Toubab Dilalaw, where the idea for the Wau Wau Collectif was first conceived.
All of the music on this album was written by Annarella and Django, with a blend of both instrumental and vocal tracks, with three songs sung in Mandingo, a Mande language spoken by the Mandinka people of the Casamance region of Senegal, and Bambara, the national language of Mali, by Django and his wife, Marietou Kouyaté.
Alongside the flute, keys, percussion, acoustic guitar and backing vocals provided by Annarella and Django’s ngoni and vocals, further guests, including acclaimed Swedish folk musician and trumpeter Ale Möller, feature across the album playing accordion, clarinet, jaw harp, melodica, shawm and trumpet, together with the Swedish trio of Lars Fredrik Swahn, Pet Lager and the album’s co-producer Karl Jonas Winqvist, who variously, contribute bass, drums, guitar, keyboards, percussion and backing vocals.
The record was produced by Annarella Sörlin and was recorded, arranged, and mixed by Lars Fredrik Swahn at Pansarmarängen Studio, Stockholm, Sweden, with additional recordings, Django’s ngoni parts and Marietou’s and Django’s vocals, being recorded at Moussa Marra studio, Dakar, Senegal.
On this debut album, Annarella and Django weave a dreamlike musical tapestry that not only pays homage to the griot tradition but succeeds in taking West African melodies and locating them within a contemporary setting, which encompasses elements of a spiritual notion of jazz, Swedish folk tunes and spoken word.
The brief, 50-second instrumental opening track, comprising solely flute and ngoni, is a thing of beauty, giving an immediate idea of what might be in store. Aural interest continues with Aduna ak asaman, as Ale’s shawm, the medieval double-reed woodwind instrument and precursor of the oboe, together with a basic hand-clap rhythm and repeated ngoni pattern is accompanied by meandering flute notes, creating a hypnotic celebration of the title–the world is heaven.
The self-explanatory Dakar Örebro is the first track to feature the lush vocals of Django andMarietou, which follow the opening ngoni notes and insistent percussive beats before, around one and a half minutes in, Ale’s trumpet takes over from the flute, which then continues weaving seamlessly around until the conclusion.
There are two other tracks featuring Marietou. The first, Sarajalela, is a happy tune that builds from flute and percussion to the beautiful female vocals, which are soon joined by those of Django. The trilling flute enters, creating, at times, an oriental feel, and careful listening also reveals Ale’s accordion. The second, Megaphone, features glorious individual vocals and vocal harmonies in a song that hits the groove from the outset with its ngoni, guitar, and basic drum-kit rhythm. It also benefits from occasional studio technical effects.
No More is one of two intriguing tracks that, in addition to featuring spoken word, can claim to push musical boundaries. With the title taken from words spoken by the Marxist economist Richard D Wolff at a Soho Forum Debate on capitalism vs. socialism on 14 Nov 2019 at New York University, samples from this speech are also used, with Annarella explaining, “We wanted to emphasise the human within this narrative, as people continue to flee, risking life, from Senegal and situations worsen due to climate and economy….” With Robin Cochrane contributing balafon, this short piece is matched in its innovation by kosmisk horizont. The track opens with, and contains, elements of what is described as “an existential discussion between Annarella Sörlin and Nils Bergvall,” the Professor emeritus of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Uppsala University. With engaging ngoni patterns and shimmering flute notes, alongside wind-like sound effects, and concluding experimental electronic sounds, plus a final few flourishing flute notes, this could well be a first, a psychedelic ngoni-flute composition of stratospheric dimensions, reflecting the ‘Cosmic horizon’ of the title.
The album’s lengthiest track, Degrees of Freedom, is also refreshingly different. Earthy percussive beats, shimmering ngoni, Annarella’s flute and piano, and more studio wizardry create an ethereal, dreamlike soundscape where the interplay between the instruments provides an absorbing listen.
One of the more slower-tempo offerings, Hommage á Dallas Dialy Mory Diabate, which features Kristina Aspeqvist on percussion, is, as the title suggests, a tribute to Dialy Mory Diabaté, also known as ‘Dallas’ or ‘the king of Rosengård’, an 82-year-old born in Dakar, but resident in Sweden since 1964, famed for his commitment to working for, and with, vulnerable youth, for which he has won many awards. The celestial, vocalised sounds are beguiling, with even more electronic quivers to conclude the piece.
The penultimate track, the short Tankefigur, is a very jaunty piece featuring only ngoni, the simplest of clave-like percussion and human whistling, whilst the album closes with Pluie Melancholique, which again sees the melding of the ngoni and pure flute tones with electronic embellishments, which, as throughout the album, never dominate, sitting subtly within the overall sound. Ale’s virtuosity on the jaw’s harp only adds to the overall richness of the offering, which, in its totality, evokes the eponymous sad rain of the title to perfection.
Never less than intriguing and eminently listenable, Jouer is a genuinely inventive debut. It reinforces the idea that music can be a positive force when creativity, across borders, cultures, and traditions, is encouraged to flourish.
Jouer (25th October 2024) We Are Busy Bodies // Sing a Song Fighter
Bandcamp: https://annarellaanddjango.bandcamp.com/album/jouer
