Orion Congregation

Ahmed Ag Kaedy is perhaps best known as one of the four musicians featured in Mali Blues, a documentary examining the threat of radical Islam to music in Mali. In this, he is often pictured playing alone, strumming the hypnotically sombre chords of the desert blues on his electric guitar.

Yet listening to his new album, Orion Congregation, a performance recorded live in Berlin last year, he has pushed his sound into a far more progressive space. Retaining those same swirling riffs, Kaedy has surrounded himself with a band well-versed in electronic music. Alongside the guitar are a couple of organs played brilliantly by Jörg Hochapfel and Kalle Enkelmann. Johannes Schleiermacher provides saxophone and synths and Mahalmadane Traoré plays the drums with a volcanic intensity. But while the four long songs here are packed with a ferocity of rhythm and a wealth of instrumental variety, the live performance doesn't translate well to record. The subtlety of Kaedy's voice is lost over the booming drums and the palpable excitement of the crowd is only heard intermittently. So even though Ahmed Ag Kaedy's music is taking new strides forwards, Orion Congregation is not really the best indicator of it.