Nostalgie

As the name ‘Tama’ (a Bambara word meaning ‘to walk’) suggests, the band’s approach was to collect years of travelling memories rather than trying to represent or revive a traditional folklore.  “With that kind of concept,” explains Sam, “we could produce the album collaboratively, each bringing in something from their own experience.  Though it has journeyed, the music retains an earthiness.  I don’t think it’s de-racinated or de-natured; it recreates its own territories and space.”  As Tom sings in the track ‘Tama’, you don’t forget where you came from when you venture somewhere new.

The not-Über-producer Sam Mills is known to Real World via Real Sugar, his album with Baul singer Paban.  Former member of 23 Skidoo, a pop band famous in the ‘80s indie scene for using ethnic rhythms and sounds, he went on to study anthropology and spent three years in Japan and two in Bangladesh, before finishing a Phd in Sufism and Mysticism in Bengal.  His music (including soundtracks for the TV series Sadhus) experiments with textures and ambiences that he likes to see in the context of songs.

“We wanted the timbre of acoustic instruments without falling into folk fetishism, without conservatism,” says Sam. “Strangely enough, electronic music seems to become dated so quickly, though I love it and love to hear remixes for instance.  I think this album will last a very long time without sounding retro.”

“Something that is powerful and resonant about this record is that it’s all played live, says Sam. “It’s not digitally edited, looped, time-stretched or artificially distressed.  We also used a very special studio in Paris called La Salle which has an old analogue machine, vintage microphones, suits of armour and so on.  We wanted a sound that had some warmth, which maybe was a little rough at the edges but which conveyed the acoustic ensemble feeling.”

Tom Diakite’s instruments include percussion, kora and mainly the donso n’goni: a variant of the guitar-like n’goni, made in his hometown; it’s held like a kora but has less strings and a deep and bassy range. “Only a few of us play it.  I also use a special type of sanza, the flembola, which is more like a calebasse with iron sticks rather than a small ordinary sanza.”

Tom’s history as choreographer and multi-instrumentalist, with the likes of Salif Keita and Leon Keita all across West Africa and Europe, don’t overview his skills as a lyricist. “In Africa, a song as a narrative has to tell something,’ he says. “It has to be useful to a certain degree, somehow instructive without being too serious.  I sing in honour of a very special person who stands as an example to all: as the griot used to praise the virtue of his patron; as the people in Kaba— where I, a stranger, was treated like a king; as Amadou Toumani Toure, a military who brought democracy to Mali; as the Soninkyes, all coming from the same ancestor, for whom the word ‘solidarity’ seems to have been invented.”

Three songs recall Tom’s years of travelling: one should walk to learn new viewpoints, but should never forget where he is coming from, nor who was left behind (‘Tama’); ‘Taaba’, which Sam describes as a piece of African existentialism, about returning to the self through the love that one person brings to another, as well as journeying out from the local to the universal and then coming home; and ‘Nostalgie’, a beautiful song of love and friendship which captures the feeling of loss of a departed one.

‘Idjo’ deals with the seeking of truth in the respect of others.  “There are three truths in Africa: my truth, your truth, and the Truth.  Someone who is right, is right; but someone imposing his reality is wrong.  In Europe, one has to be very old to be a sage,” says Tom.  “But we may find some African sage in his thirties and some really stupid old man!”

A last word about the third member.  Exuberant when it comes to playing, very discreet and humble in his life, Djanuno Dabo has shown his percussion maestria with countless African artists including Alpha Blondy and Toure Kunda.  “Percussion is the core of Tama’s sound, and Djanuno sounds fantastic!” says Tom. “On ‘Boula’, his work on the claypot really makes the song.  He brings something more ‘popular’, less austere than traditional Malian rhythms.”  He also plays the guitar and sings, which could be a new aspect for Tama to develop in the future.  Expect the unexpected!