release date: Apr. 11, 2025
format: digital (9 x File, FLAC)
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,88]
producer: Lucille Reyboz, Yusuke Nakanishi & Laurent Bizot
label: No Format! / Nø Førmat! - nationality: Mali
Track highlights: 1. "Aboubakrin" - 2. "Awa" - 3. "Tassi" (4 / 5) - 4. "Kanté Manfila" - 5. "Chérie" - 8. "Tu vas me manquer"
Studio album by Salif Keita following 6½ years after his proclaimed final album Un autre blanc (Oct. 2019) is released on the French label No Format!. Keita is now 76 years old and when approaching 70 he may have concluded that his 2019 album should be his final, but when music is what you really know, it's probably hard to call it a day, and then many artists simply continue without retiring themselves, which is why noteworthy music still comes from artists like Van Morrison, Bryan Ferry, Robert Plant, Neil Young, John Cale, Laurie Anderson and a long list of many others.
So Kono is not the continued style from Un autre blanc, which showed us Keita in unusual orchestrated arrangements with a dominance of synths. In that regard this new outing is much more like a return to his roots just without the uptempo and dance-oriented compositions as this is a gentler Malian-styled, or African singer / songwriter production with Keita's still colourful and vibrant vocal exclusively accompagnied by few instruments like the ngoni [kora-sounding strings instrument] or guitar and percussion as only instruments. Now, I don't understand a word of the lyrics, which change from Malian [?] to occasional French but it appears as an album of deep emotions - at least I feel that Keita puts something I understand as heartfelt engagement into these simple, yet beautiful songs. Some of the songs here appears to be more naked reworkings of some of his own songs.
So Kono is a wonderful and warm document of Keita's strengths and vitality, and it's one of the best album of the year.
Highly recommended.
