Ballaké Sissoko专辑介绍：This excellent collection of solo kora, duet (kora-guitar and kora-cello), and ensemble pieces also, I think, provides the listener with a fine sampler of the state of contemporary kora music. It isn't as stylistically diverse as Toumani Diabate's recent work (see, for example, his excellent Mande Variations), but it does incorporate, in several pieces, Vincent Segal's very un-West African cello (as something of a continuation of Sissoko's and Segal's recent collaborative album, Chamber Music). Throughout, there's a kind of contentment with the musical state of things as regards this centuries-old instrument and its growing status beyond western Africa--thanks in large measure to Diabate's and Sissoko's own solo and collaborative work.One comment not made by the other reviewers: This recording has a lot of"noise" in it. In many places the kora's body or neck resonates oddly, and on occasion you can easily hear Sissoko's fingers moving up and down on the strings of his instrument. I have read elsewhere that despite their size, koras do not produce much volume; recordings not made in studio environments are easy to wreck because of this, I understand. For this recording the engineers must have had the mics very close indeed (a picture on the inside gatefold of my copy seems to confirm this). I mention all of this because the other kora recordings I own don't have these sorts of noises, and when I began listening to this yesterday I was briefly concerned that my stereo's speakers were ailing. Once I realized what I was hearing and why, I also realized that the noise gives this recording an intimacy and immediacy lacking in those other recordings. Still, first-time listeners listening on a home stereo need this heads-up.