Amadou & Mariam: Folila

"Call it double exposure. 'Folila,' a new album by Amadou & Mariam, the blind husband-and-wife duo from Mali, was recorded twice, once in New York with an all-star cast of indie musicians and once in Mali with a crew of traditional instrumentalists. Though their original plan was to make two albums, they ended up mixing the separately recorded tracks together. Released last week by Nonesuch, 'Folila' is their attempt to expand their audience in the United States, where their mix of Malian pop and blues-rock has been slower to catch on than in Europe. The list of American guests on the CD reads like a Who’s Who of hipster New York: the guitarist Nick Zinner of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the electro-pop singer Santigold, the rapper Theophilus London, Jake Shears of Scissor Sisters and the vocalists Kyp Malone and Tunde Adebimpe, of TV on the Radio. ..." (James C. McKinley Jr., "Ringing Voice and Guitar Echo Globally," New York Times, 4/13/12).

View catalog record here!