A cello&kora duo- collaboration for the ages; Ballake Sissoko, who plays the traditional kora, a lute-harp from Mali, and Vincent Segal, the French cellist who plays for the trip-hop band Bumcello, will be on stage for the first time in Ankara

When Ballaké Sissoko and Vincent Segal released their first collaborative album, Chamber Music, they caught the music world by surprise. Everything about this duo was unexpected: Sissoko is one of Mali’s greatest exponents of the kora; joining forces in an unlikely pairing with a French cellist best-known for his work in trip-hop; and the resultant elegant, soulful music they made together.

Like Toumani Diabaté, Sissoko is a griot, whose music is steeped in ancient West African traditions. He’s also a staunch innovator, as demonstrated through this collaboration with Segal – best known for his work with dub/trip hop outfit Bumcello. Their complicity is such that the kora and the cello seem to express themselves with a single voice; two sensibilities in unison.  Now, these two sonic voyagers have returned with Musique de Nuit – an album even more spellbinding than its predecessor.

Perhaps the most magical thing about the new album is that after years of touring, and performing together on hundreds of stages around the world, the album has the feeling of eavesdropping on a late-night jam session – it was recorded in two sessions in the Malian capital of Bamako – one at night on Ballaké’s rooftop, and the other during the day in the famed Bogolan studio.