In 2018, Anansy Cissé and his group were en route to play a peace festival in his hometown of Diré, in the Timbuktu region of Mali, when they were stopped by an armed gang, held captive and their instruments smashed. Cissé, a gifted guitarist whose debut album, Mali Overdrive, had made waves, was devastated: what was the point of singing about love and peace, he wondered, in a war-torn country like his? Cissé retreated to his home studio to record artists from the country’s young hip-hop scene.
His equilibrium has returned on Anoura, a gentle, reflective album that includes songs about education, poverty and righteous conduct, providing indirect commentary on Mali’s parlous political situation. Most of it is steeped in the traditions of his northern homeland, with female vocals gliding serenely across the hypnotic backdrop of Cissé’s guitar. A brace of tracks, Talka and Balkissa, also include the fiddle playing of Zoumana Tereta, providing an intricate, impatient counterpoint.
Cissé’s own rolling guitar lines are downbeat to a fault, less experimental than on his debut, but cutting loose on Mina, whose fuzz-tone guitar is an echo-laden piece of desert blues. Arguably, there could have been more of the same, but Anoura (The Light) is sufficient to itself, a heartfelt plea for less troubled times.
