For your listening pleasure

As a follow-up to this post (and as an excuse to both play with RapidShare and inflict some of my musical tastes on you), here are a couple of selections of music from Malian musicians.

"Debe" is from In the Heart of the Moon, the album by Ali Farka Touré (guitar) and Toumani Diabaté (kora) I've mentioned before. The Nonesuch site is sparing, to put it generously, with samples of their artists' music, so here's a small attempt to right that wrong. The liner notes say that the hotel room they recorded this in looked out over the Niger river, broad and peaceful, and that the kora is such a quiet instrument that everyone in the room had to keep absolutely still. I think this song in particular feels very much like a product of that context.

"Gnangran" is from Issa Babayogo's debut album, Sya. I think of all the songs on this album, this track shows off most effectively Bagayogo's fusion of centuries-old instrumentation and song structures with Western dub and club electronics and editing. The riffing stringed instrument is Bagayogo's kamele n'goni (see the pic), which is plucked rather than strummed; it has a percussive quality that lightens the song's steady thump.

Anyway. Enjoy.