Bombino!

I’ve found myself digging on music coming out of Mali for some time now – particularly a couple of the Tuareg artists Tinariwen and Bombino. Bombino is on tour here and has been making his way around the festivals. When I saw a sideshow announced at the Basement I was well excited. What gets me about the music is even though there are familiar parts to it the approach is so different. Fascinating.

I stumbled upon Bombino while reading through the artists who were to be playing at Womadelaide and in his bio it mentioned that his latest album was produced by a member of the Black Keys which piqued my interest so I went foraging and found this song: Amidinine from the album Nomad:

Which lead me to this acoustic version:

And this song: Azamane Tiliade

So the other night we had a bit of a band excursion … as in a bit of the band went on an excursion to The Basement to see Bombino.

The show was great. Bombino himself appears not to speak much English so the second guitarist / singer / percussionist took MC duties. The set started in acoustic mode with all the band members seated down the front wearing traditional robes. It was captivating. Paul was instantly front and centre listening intently. Theo and I sat back and took it all in. The band created these hypnotic rhythms for the lead vocal to sing across. The audience was instantly up and dancing which continued through the whole show. Eventually they went into electric mode and the gig took off. The musicianship and stamina (especially the drummer!) were incredible. There were points of sheer transcendence and you forgot where you were.

So glad to have taken the time for this.

Cheers,

Rosie