“He doesn’t speak any French, and I speak no English… but through music, we understand.” -Sekou Kouyate
In the port city of Marseilles, home to many a nomadic soul, Joe Driscoll first met Sekou Kouyate. The two were paired up to collaborate at the French festival ‘Nuit Metis’ (Nights of Mixed Race), and though they shared no common spoken language, they encountered no obstacles communicating through their music. After a few weeks of improvising and jamming, they had found a spiritual and musical bond of kindred spirits. The resulting album is a mad fusion of afrobeat, hip-hop, folk, and reggae, that defies any simple tags or description.
THURSDAY 08 OCTOBER
THEKLA BRISTOL The Grove, Bristol BS1 4RB Doors 7:00pm Ages 14+
The well-worn and often overblown expression “music is a common language” has never been more apropos in the case of Joe Driscoll & Sekou Kouyate. US-born, England-based Driscoll speaks no French and Kouyate, who hails from the West African country of Guinea, little English. When they were brought together at the Nuit Metis (Mixed Night) festival in Marseille, France in 2010 and given a week to produce a concert, music was the only way they could communicate.
It turns out, they had a lot to “talk” about, and their first meeting sparked a collaboration that led to the formation of a band, the recording of an album, over 120 concert dates across Europe and rave reviews. Driscoll contributes the rapping, looping, beatboxing and songwriting talents he developed growing up in Syracuse, New York and during his own successful recording career. Kouyate, already a phenomenon in African music circles, has blown minds and ears with his hypersonic electrified riffs on the kora, bringing the exalted West African harp into the 21st Century with use of distortion peddles, effects and previously-unimagined technical prowess. Together, Driscoll and Kouyate blend hip-hop, spoken word, funk, and soulful, accessible rock with Afrobeat, reggae and irrepressible African grooves.
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