Ballaké Sissoko & Vincent Ségal

Bio

Ballaké Sissoko (Bamako, Mali, 1968), began playing kora, typical griot instrument used by storytellers in West Africa, at a very young age. In 1998 he released his first solo album Kora Music from Mali Kora–Solo Album, while the following year he duetted with Tourmani Diabaté, a renowned Malian griot musician and kora player. In September 2003 Ballaké Sissoko published for Ponderosa Diario Mali, together with Italian pianist Ludovico Einaudi. The album traced an ideal journey into the heart of Africa.

In 2005 Sissoko published Tomora, where he collaborated again with Tourmani Diabaté and with artists such as Alboulkadri Barry, Rokia Traoré, and Fanga Diawara. After 2009 collaboration with the cellist Vincent Ségal, in 2013 Sissoko published another solo album: At Peace. A record of remembrance and celebration of his homeland, Mali. The album, made of traditional and evocative sounds, expressed peace and serenity. In 2015 Sissoko engaged in a new collaboration with Vincent Ségal in the album Musique de Nuit, while in 2019 he published his latest work Sissoko & Sissoko, a collection of duets with the musician Baba Sissoko.

Vincent Ségal (Reims,1967) is a French cellist known for the variety of inspirations and his presence in eclectic and unusual projects. In 1986, he founded the electronic duo Bumcello with percussionist Cyril Atef, for which he won the Victoires de la Musique Award in 2006 and was named Electronic Artist of the Year. In 2007, Ségal collaborated with Alexandre Desplat on the soundtrack of the film Lust, Caution by Ang Lee, and in that same year he released his second, and final, solo album: Cello. In 2009, after collaborating with Sissoku, Ségal participated in the album If on a Winter’s Night… by Sting. His latest project was the collaboration with the Italian – French singer and guitarist Piers Faccini on the album Songs of Time Lost in 2014. It is a record in which the two artists, who have different and independent stories, are confronted with a music full of melody in an intimate account enclosed within a constant rhythm and an acoustic tone that remains present throughout the record.

Chamber Music (2009) and Musique de Nuit (2015) are the two collaboration projects between Ballaké Sissoko and Vincent Ségal. In both albums, the strings of both artists are intertwined to give rise to a seductive alchemy of sounds that testified to a sincere embrace between different cultures, between Africa and Europe. In August 2016 Sissoko and Ségal performed in Val di Fassa (TN) as part of The Sound of the Dolomites Festival, where they charmed the audience with their apparently distant sounds that, however, intertwine in an unexpected and captivating way.

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