Sira Kura

Farafin means ‘black’ and toubabou ‘white’ – hence we have Faratuben, a multicultural band in which instead of the usual migration of African musicians to Europe, the Danish trio of Mikas Bøgh Olesen, Jakob de Place and Mads Voxen have made the journey in the opposite direction and relocated to Bamako to team up with the Malian trio of Dieudonne Koita (guitar), Sory Dao (vocals) and Kassim Koita (balafon). The sextet's debut spotlights a lesser known facet of Malian culture in the music of the minority Bwa people (sometimes called Bobo) of northern Mali and Burkina Faso. Sira Kura (‘New Direction’ in Bamana) may be the first time the traditional percussive music of the Bwa has been presented on record with electric instruments. It's essentially party music full of pulsating polyrhythmic groves and upbeat, melodic Afro-pop tropes, heard at its best on the rousing ‘Mi Nian Mure Mure’, a proud diatribe against Mali's former colonial masters who ‘took our land, took our space, tortured us, treated us with barbarity.' After being stuck in Denmark for much of 2020 due to COVID-19, the band are now back in Mali recording their second album, written during lockdown.