Trio da Kali and Kronos Quartet: Ladilikan review – spellbinding

‘Formidable’: Trio Da Kali with the Kronos Quartet Photograph: Lenny Gonzalez

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.