Sira

The collaboration between African kora player Ablaye Cissoko and trumpeter Volker Goetze is a thing of real late-night beauty. It lives on the tipping point between West African music and ethereal, atmospheric European jazz. In many ways, the disc belongs to Cissoko, whose playing and singing on both traditional and original material powers the whole things, gently lulling everything along, with Goetze's contributions more minor, often punctuating and filling in the material. But it somehow manages to become more than the sum of its parts, a conjoining of talents that brings real magic. The pair set out their stall perfectly on the opening title track, where Goetze floats in the background with short statements behind Cissoko's singing and mellifluous playing, and it simply continues from there. Goetze seems happy to let his partner occupy center stage, and the way they do things is glorious. It might not be an album you want to play all the time, but for those wee small hours, when you want music to envelop you, this is the disc. ~ Chris Nickson|