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Rating: “Diary Mali is the story of a journey. Two friends speaking different languages meet in the desert and through music exchange their worlds under the shade of a henna tree.”
Diary (Mali), how many vital, suffered, troubled, unspoken and unspeakable events make up the intense and multiple-lived pages of the humano-libello in quaestionem.
(Diary) Mali: a generous, oppressed, vilified, ignobly exploited expanse, and as all too often happens, without the slightest decency and human pity, denied unto itself.
A pity and above all humanity of which, conversely, the immensely graceful, spectacularly melancholic, as well as magnificently alive and profound and delicate Ballake & Ludovico (really) four-handed work is infused with in its impeccable and crystal-clear essence.
A recording and testimony of the spectacular live encounter/concert held in Longiano, three Februarys ago, finally the Prodigious Ponderosa decides to put everything on a concrete digital medium and make public and accessible the delicate yet highly intense ten tracks that were the vital representation of that evening.
Monsieur Sissoko, stellar strummer of Kora, stands out and is confirmed as a true virtuoso of his archaic and "poor" traditional instrument (nothing else but a voluminous gourd cut in half, fitted with a double ten of taut, sinewy, and sound-sharp strings as magnetic sound-emitting material): embraces, caresses, tenderly entwines his audio-extremity, gracefully and with immense taste and sound-wisdom touches the fragile yet taut strings, weaving (I would dare say) quietly his phenomenal and often semi-obscured masterful contribution.
Sir Einaudi in this live-context descends and perfectly permeates the emotional frameworks set by the alter-ego; throughout the intense flow of changing tracks; through his piano supports, accompanies, sometimes impetuously invigorates, often bordering on absoluta perfectionem, the natural sound-weavings constituting the rarefied and touching instrumental audio-pages in quaestionem.
If one wanted to be particularly pedantic besides miserably picky, the only straw-needle-like negative-trifle concerning the intriguing and bound in manuscript art audio-pamphlet, thus in the global evaluation of the fresco brought to our delighted ear canals, is the existence of a certain overall sound-underexposure of the extraordinary Central African instrumentalist: the acoustic material tends largely to favor the (not only) classical as well as Einaudesque component: the often measured, sometimes fluent, velvety and naturally more corporeal sound waves created by the voluminous artifact rise at times ungenerously over the melodically stripped down yet wonderfully punctuated string emissions: it almost seems that Sir Sissoko fears a possible "overexposure" of his emotional and personal sound-frameworks.
Given this, we are confronted with a work of predominantly intimate and chiaroscuro composition, fueled by slight contrasts and only hinted audio-skirmishes, endowed with an intrinsic strength that often borders on absolute confidential-spectacularity and sensual perfection, it proves an arduous and ungenerous task to objectively highlight the most intriguing fragments of the presently horrendously narrated live-collection: the proud and subtly bold “Chanson d’Amour” and “Soutoukou” deeply enchant by virtue of a simple yet spectacular touch and crescendo; likewise, the dark (flames) and sadly evocative as well as harrowing notes promulgated in “Ma mere” or furthermore the sound-bliss granted in “Niger Blues”, [literally stratospheric], sincerely bestow profound and genuinely touching sound-emotions really a lot if not (quite) more.
From the elegance of the execution and the unsuspected enjoyability in listening, one draws, a vast sensation of internal peace and refreshing pleasure as well as a substantial and regenerative saving immense strength: in doubt, a fleeting eavesdrop (even for encyclopedic audio-completeness), I would de-give them (indeed).
Tracklist
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