1993 - Mali
Songhai Music
Four decades of music, around seventeen studio albums and yet, The Source always stands out as Ali Farka Touré’s most impressive work. Recorded in two hours with his newly formed band ASCO (made of four men he trusts and loves with all his heart) The Source is an hour-long mesmerizing album that will introduce you to the most beautiful and spiritual side of his music. Sung in five languages (songhai, peul, tamasheq, french and dogon), The Source tells many stories from Mali’s several cultures. On Hawa Dolo, Ali Farka Touré praises the wisdom of a well-known young girl in Dogon country, while Karaw is a celebration of Mali’s farmers fighting the relentless weather conditions and Inchana Massina lauds prophet Mohammed Benit. And when Touré lets his guitar slides in pure awe, on Roucky with Taj Mahal, or during the magnificent instrumental Cinquante Six, his magic washes over us for one of the most memorably blissful moment in music. Rare are those albums capable of making you feel at peace with yourself and your environment the same way Touré does with The Source.