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Nostalgie

Tama

'Expect the unexpected': what else could be the underlying motto of the Tama project than this true piece of Malian philosophy, taken from the song 'Koko'?

The Tama record, 'Nostalgie', came about when Malian Tom Diakite, Londoner Sam Mills, and Djanuno Dabo of Guinea Bissau met whilst playing with Bengali maestro Paban Das Baul. According to Sam, "We had some spare time booked in a studio and played a few songs which were impromptu but sounded really good and were enough for us to convince Real World to record an album."

Mainly based on singer Tom Diakite's repertoire, the record displays a mixture of rhythms and flavours from West Africa, with a definite input from European music. Songs of the migrant, they capture musical influences from lands visited and departed. Tom says, "Originally I came from the same part of Mali as Oumou Sangare and Nawa Doumbia, the Wasoulou, and the music I learnt there was already a mix - something different from the mainstream Malian tradition. Now I use aspects of the tradition like the pentatonic scale, adding some blues and non-Malian elements both in the music and in the instrumentation - with the guitar, piano, cello and oud."

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 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.

Nostalgie at realworldrecords.com