Our latest working-from-home album of the week brings together two masters. Malian artist Toumani Diabaté is one of the world’s best-known players of the kora, a stringed instrument from West Africa, while Béla Fleck is an American banjoist of the highest degree.
It was Fleck’s fascination with the origins of his instrument that led him to Gambia, Mali, Tanzania, and Uganda, tracing the ancestry of the banjo and linking up with some of the region’s finest musicians. Those sessions spawned a string of albums released by Fleck, and this is the latest.
Dropped on Good Friday, The Ripple Effect is a beauty. Both Fleck and Diabaté are virtuosic, but they work together as one musical mind — their playing is so smoothly interwoven that at times it’s hard to tell which sound is coming from which instrument.
We think it’s an ideal WFH record. The playing is intricate, but never distracting, with moments of calming beauty throughout. It’s a fascinating sound, too — hints of bluegrass and jazz come together as one with West African rhythms.
The whole thing was recorded live, which gives it a sprinkling of escapism. Listening to the claps and cheers after each song, it’s a little bit easier to imagine you’re watching these two perform at a venue somewhere, rather than stuck in your living room.
