Nigel Woodreviews ROKIA TRAORE's latest album

ROKIA TRAORE

Tchamantche ****

Nonesuch

Rokia Traore is a visionary artist who takes her Malian musical heritage into the contemporary arena of jazz, blues and classical, and creates something new and daring from the encounter. Her previous album, Bowmboi, won World Music Album of 2003. Here the instrumentation is acoustic and a little more sparse, built around bluesy patterns of vintage guitar and ngoni, over insistent percussive rhythms. Rokia's voice, though, is the star in the firmament. It can be whispery and intimate, the sound of deliciously reined-in passion where she coos and flutters like some exquisite bird. When she really lets her voice out it can be moving and cathartic, as on the delicate harp-embroidered Kounandi, or thrillingly powerful, as in the stabbing "Je t'aime" refrain over the acoustic afrobeat of Aimer, or the growls and shouts of the driving Tounka. Unique and impressive. www.rokiatraore.net

Download tracks: Dounia, Aimer, Kounandi