Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

The merging of styles is always enhanced by the thrill of embracing a different culture; to stay within your own narrow point of view, to reside and seethe at the outside world and insist that the sense of pure only comes from your perceived understanding of self, that is when others have the right to step forth and have words with you.

To embrace another culture, to listen to it breathe is to know that regardless of where you come from, you can allow yourself to be fulfilled by constant reappraisal, that you can be an advocate for change.

It is change that was once captured by Paul Simon in the album Graceland, it is revolution that bears witness to the power of expression that growls and caresses the vocals of Kankou Kouyate, from one of Mali’s notable musical families as she joins forces with Parisian Olaf Hind in the breath-taking album, Kuma.

Words, we need them to appreciate another’s point of view but too often we listen without hearing, we listen not to understand, but to have our own thoughts dominate the conversation; it is a state of mind that we must overthrow if we are ever to move forward, to be better than we have become. It is in verse, in the elegance of Ms. Kouyate and the timing of Olaf Hund’s textural beat that Kuma arises from out of the sands and into the heart of the listener.

Across songs such as the album opener Sigi, Bin, Ne Bi Fe, Ko Da Koma and Djuguya, the pleasure of deciphering the meaning of another’s passion, of their concerns and their place in the world is given the beat of the dynamic pursuit; lyrics that you want to invest in, the verse of freedom unlocked and allowed to breathe in the open air, such is the sheer scope of embracing cultures and the marriage of possibility.

Kuma is a wonderfully produced album, one of beauty, of confronting ignorance and hopeful change. Words sometimes are not enough, but in the action of these two spirits, they sing of fruitful acceptance.

Ian D. Hall