Xource announce the release of the follow-up to Ellika & Solo's 2002 success, "Tretakt/Takissaba". That album, their debut, was awarded the prestigious BBC World Music Award 2003, gaining a lot of attention both in Sweden and abroad.
Ellika & Solo have been playing together since their chance meeting in 1998 and have toured in the USA, Africa, Greenland and many parts of Europe. Their ongoing dialogue between fiddle and kora feels just as exciting and unpredictable now as it did on their last outing.
The new album, with the title "Abaraká!/Tack!" is a thank you from Ellika & Solo to their teachers and inspirations. The record, kicking off with a piece that Ellika learnt from her teacher Gustaf Päkkos, contains 11 fantastic songs, partly written by Ellika & Solo and partly borrowed from their respective roots - Ellika's rich Bingsjö traditions and Solo's from the Cissokho family in Senegal. The album was recorded at Home Studio in Revsund just outside Östersund, during the bitterly cold winter weeks of February 2005. Technician and co-producer was Sigge Krantz.
Ellika & Solo continue to break conventions. The period since their last album has seen the pair travelling and making new friends, with the result that Ellika & Solo have invited several other musicians to play on some of the songs on the new record. As Ellika says: "The collaboration we have with one another and now with fellow musicians is founded solely in our desire to play together. You meet a musician that you feel you just have to play with and the sparks start to fly.. It doesn't matter where you come from or what instrument you play. The language of folk music is a common one for folk musicians the world over and that makes communicating easy. There may appear to be a vast gulf between Sweden and Senegal, but there are many similarities and opportunities for interplay. Then when we met Bruce Molsky, the distance to the Appalachians seemed suddenly to shrink and American Old Time music to feel so near and so natural"
Amongst guests on the album are friend and fellow folk musician Bruce Molsky (fiddle, banjo, guitar, vocals) from the USA. Bruce, who has often been compared to Ry Cooder in his commitment to the music of the Appalachians, has a light touch and yet plays with great gusto, making fiddle music that is both modern and old-world, as headstrong as the music from Bingsjö. Solo recognises the banjo's sound from Senegal, which has a similar instrument, and the guitar and the kora intertwine perfectly.
Bruce Molsky is also a singer and has mastered the difficult art of accompanying himself on the fiddle whilst singing. On "Abaraká!/Tack!" Bruce and Solo collaborate on a love song from Ireland and a hunting song from Senegal.
Other guests on "Abaraká!/Tack!" come from the ranks of the great folk music family Cissokho. Solo's sister Adama Cissokho, with her warm, dark vocals, and Solo's niece Binta Suso, with her straightforward yet lively vocal style sing on some of the songs and Solo's nephew Seckou Keita plays percussion. They bring with them the great, long tradition of their family and indeed also play together in the family-band Jalikunda.
Seckou is a well-known kora player and percussionist living in England, where he plays in several bands and works as a session musician. He quickly found his place between Ellika's triple and Solo's quadruple time and is yet another musician that Ellika & Solo love playing with.
Naturally there are also a number of duos here featuring just Ellika and Solo, where the viola meets the Senegalese kora in the kind of magical melodies we remember from the first album. Spirited playing and the joy of discovery are very much in evidence just as before and several of the songs have an uncontrollable, wild tempo to them.
Ellika & Solo