The very first notes of »Tartit« redeem the title, which in English translates to unity. Bluesy guitar lines, floating synthesisers, and a jubilant saxophone – desert expansiveness and club vibes. The Malian guitarist Ahmed Ag Kaedy and the Berlin quintet Onom Agemo And The Disco Jumpers tap into abundantly different sources: Ahmed Ag Kaedy is a major exponent of bluesy desert rock, which also became popular in the global West through Touareg bands like Tinariwen, Tamikrest, Bombino and Mdou Moctar. Onom Agemo draw their inspiration from jazz and psychedelics, but also from Ethiopian funk and West African Afrobeat. The members also play in cosmopolitan formations such as the Andromeda Mega Express Orchestra and Shake Stew. Following Ahmed Ag Kaedy and the Berliners’ release of a joint single and their tour together five years ago, they are now releasing their first album together. With gently grooving songs, sometimes dominated by Ag Kaedy’s punchy guitar, sometimes with clever wind arrangements in the foreground, they create floating trance states that make you forget that Ag Kaedy once had to flee from radical Islamists in northern Mali, for whom music in and of itself is anathema. And somehow it’s no wonder: this music is indeed competition for the spiritual promises of transcendence.
Gnonnas Pedro
The Man Who Sings All African Languages
Nanga Boko