Author: Russell Higham
View album and artist detailsArtist/band: |
Wau Wau Collectif |
Label: |
Sahel Sounds |
Magazine Review Date: |
June/2021 |
In 2018 Karl Jonas Winqvist, self-styled ‘musical archaeologist’ and founding member of the Swedish band First Floor Power, travelled to Toubab Dialaw in Senegal. Previously known as an idyllic but sleepy fishing village, it had somehow become the hub of the country's bohemian art scene and Winqvist spent several weeks there meeting with and recording local musicians, poets and cultural figures. The resulting collection of ten tracks, featuring contributions from over 20 musicians from both Senegal and Sweden, spans both borders and genres yet is inextricably linked by a central theme of ‘Educating the Young’ (the album's title translated from the native language of the West African Wolof people).
It's a veritable smorgasbord of regional styles encompassing everything from Sufi-inspired spiritual chants and hypnotic dub rhythms through to euphoric cosmic jazz. The gloriously uplifting and devotional ‘Salamaleikoum’ and ‘Yaral Sa Doom II’, with their beautifully simple, almost childlike, yet profoundly moving ‘music-box’ melodies, are superb standouts on an excellent album. Let's hope Winqvist is going back to Senegal for his summer holidays again this year, pandemics permitting, to unearth some more aural treasures.
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