Ali Farka Touré, Toumani Diabaté – In The Heart Of The Moon (2xLP)

What began as an idea for a single duet ended with a whole record full of ideas, musical improvisation and spontaneity. Recorded in three two-hour sessions at the Hotel Mandé in Bamako, Mali, an extraordinary dialogue between Tourés acoustic guitar and Diabatés Kora was created. The album featured Ry Cooder on piano and guitar, Sekou Kante and Cachaíto López on bass and Joachim Cooder and Lekan Babalola on Percussion.

Ali Farka Touré, who died in 2006, is known as the John Lee Hooker of Africa and is one of the most prominent representatives of West African music in the West. Toumani Diabaté also comes from Mali and is considered the master of the Kora, a 21-string harp. Western pop audiences know him from his work with Taj Mahal and Damon Albarn (Blur). "The most beautiful music in the world," enthused the English music magazine Mojo.

This tender but intense music from West Africa has never sounded more transparent, space- and heart-rending (stereoplay, August 2012)

,,... here an instrumentally reduced, very spiritual and yet easily accessible music literally casts a spell over the listener ..." (Stereo, November 2012)