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Rating: "There was always a flight of tiny creatures – little crabs, squids, and even light and diaphanous algae and small coral plants – that broke away from the sea and ended up in the Moon, hanging from that calcareous ceiling, or remained there in mid-air, in a phosphorescent swarm, which we drove away by waving banana leaves."
("The Distance from the Moon" from "Cosmicomics" by Italo Calvino)
From the heart of the Moon, an ancestral symbol of the cycle of life, fertility, and "mistress" of the waters, come timeless sounds, signs of fundamental structures, true paradigms of all popular music, from blues to flamenco.
To capture them and make them intelligible, with the wisdom of old animist sorcerers, are two musicians from Mali, but belonging to different tribes and cultures, the late guitarist Ali Farka Toure and the virtuoso of the kora, a typical West African instrument, a kind of 21-string harp-lute, Toumani Diabate.
From the center of the Niger, one of the three great waterways of the thirsty African continent, whose sources, ideally, also feed the Mississippi, thus start vibrations, beneficial waves that propagate overcoming any barrier. A musical quake, so light and harmless yet penetrating and unstoppable, that shakes us and reminds us, as we increasingly need, where everything started, what the true cradle of our civilization is and where those we can legitimately call our most ancient ancestors are.
With their gnarled farmer's fingers, accustomed to tearing patches of land from the desert, Toumani and Farka strike, pluck and caress the strings of their instruments and, as if by magic, the spirits come; mythical stories unfold; the strange creatures of the beloved river begin their metamorphoses. A close and magical, there is truly no more adequate adjective, dialogue that gives life to twelve instrumental panels of crystalline and mysterious beauty.
They are given an extremely discreet contribution also by the American friends Ry and Joachim Cooder, already with Ali in the famous "Talking Timbuktu", supporting the refined and tight melodic texture created by the masters, but careful to remain in the background. A sort of jam session (but the expression might have displeased the poor Toure, always attentive and proud in distinguishing the African "tree" from the American "branches and leaves") from which emerge clear mutual admiration and respect, the powerful desire to measure themselves as well as to verify how their powers as musical shamans, as evokers of spirits, are strengthened by the union of their incredible skills.
A music as simple in inspiration and intention as it is complex and dense in results, which is capable of bringing you closer to the Big Bang, to the moment when the first melodies were released. A music powerful and ambitious, that Ali and Toumani think of and intend in its ancient and primary function as a generator of images, as a communication tool with the spirits of Nature. But also in its social function, a silent cry directed at the world so that it does not forget mother-Africa, the only place where it is still possible to feel the heartbeat of the Moon.
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