Long-awaited release of Kayhan Kalhor and Toumani Diabaté collaboration

This duo recording is something special taking us on an improvisational musical journey into new landscapes and will be released on Real World Records on 5 May 2023. The track ‘The Sky Is The Same Colour Everywhere’ is available to hear now.

Kayhan Kalhor, from Iran, is the leading player of the kamancheh, the Persian spike fiddle. Toumani Diabaté, from Mali, is likewise the leading player of the West African kora, a 21-string harp-lute and a sublime creation of gourd, cow skin and fishing line. This is Kayhan’s first collaboration with an African musician.

“The qualities of minimalism and trance that I like in Persian music are also there in Toumani’s,” says Kayhan. “That’s how I like to think and tell a story. That quality in African music has always attracted me and I think Toumani does that really well.”

“It’s like this music was already there waiting for us,” says Toumani. “And it’s like the two of us knew each other before – in another life.”

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