Music and Vinyl: Trio Da Kali & Kronos Quartet

This meeting of three Malian musicians, from traditional Griot families, with that most collaborative of western classical groups, the Kronos Quartet, is a match made in heaven. World Circuit records' latest release continues their tradition of presenting exciting, unusual and compelling music with quality recordings and presentation.

Ladilikan is an album with one foot in the Malian desert and the other in the chamber venues of Europe, but the combination feels so naturally organic that the resultant music relies on neither for it's emotional impact. The album has been getting rave reviews from critics:

"Not every project by inveterate collaborators Kronos Quartet emerges a triumph – their recent Folk Songs album is a case in point. This encounter with three outstanding Malian musicians dazzles, however, partly because the quartet hush their chamber strings and let the African trio strut their formidable stuff. There is no point crowding the voice of Hawa Diabate, whom Kronos founder David Harrington likens to the late gospel diva Mahalia Jackson, handing her a pair of Jackson’s most famous outings (in translation) to spellbinding effect, with Ladilikan featuring Lassana Diabate’s balafon pyrotechnics. Kronos’s string parts are alternately urgent and sinuous, and Nick Gold’s production has a winning vibrancy." Guardian, 3/9/17

Reproduced below are some "sleeve notes" from the booklet, and other pages (click to enlarge to read the text!)