At first, they were not meant to meet. “I was not at all familiar with electronic music” said Mamani. “ As far as African music is concerned, I knew nothing or almost nothing about it, I have never been to Bamako”, replied Marc. But here you are, flesh is not computer. This accounts for the reason why both got together in this project around “a music without boundary”, which was just to give a frame to their crave. Both went to see elsewhere if the other pair exists there, both met there as for ever. Both went on the trip bringing their know- how, and the and achievements, and above all, the desire to discover the other partner in order to better know about oneself. We had to learn to listen to one another. “We have different ways of counting music, to enter the beat. Mamani resorts to the clear drum whereas I sing on the bass drum. We had to find way. “And there goes the music. He played sampler”, paying attention to respect the text, the original meaning, not misrepresenting the song with the machine. She contributed with a collection of ten songs, her high pitch voice and the well tuned guitar of her loyal Djelly Moussa. He endeavors to “shorten to a maximum, and carve the sound” always tuning to the melody of the voice, striking it with rhythms and sequences, scraping it to the samples. As an end result, after three years of copying down and back trips, the third type meeting took place. Fantasies fed and confrontations; sensual but never consensual.

At first, "Electro Bamako", is world! Of course, it is the opposite. Today, music is a world opened on the infinite, a universe which goes beyond the restricted frame of biases. “ It’s time to stop viewing West African music as just mere folklore.” Their music is written in the plural of the subjective, for it conjugates two singular ways of the present tense. She does not seek to misrepresent the a propos strength of her ideas, he does not seek to rub off the differences in style, they go along well. “This music originates from Mamani who composed the songs and then, she wonders through sound of the whole planet that I harvested”. Here, no neo-colonialism of an out dated past, just a retro futurism which sticks to the current event. Presently, the general climate translates the sound from big cities as well as world sonorities. The World sono, 80 slogans, still travels better with technique breakthrough achieved since then. This disk, “is Malian song tuned with electro jazz, on pop structures but wit a rock sound.” The clear tone is transported towards other horizons, carried away by an untimely sound traffic. A drive bop, a piano line finely exposed, a sample of saxophone which blasters, a loop of n’goni tuned with the others, some sensible cord of violin and violoncello, a balafon which gives the beat, a “technoïde” tapestry in this multi-tracks game, there will be more false starts than true surprise at finish. Like a jungle making noise and resonate with echoes and scrap of solo… A word to the wise is enough.

A posteriori, Marc Minelli left his home-studio for Bamako. For good, for ever, he tasted the fruit of this natural union. “With Amadou and Mariam, I listened to the model. It fitted well with the general ambiance “. A posteriori, Mamani also listened carefully “. At the beginning, I did not recognized myself, until I heard my own voice. I was delighted!” A posteriori, this sound item bridges two worlds, two personalities, who finally look alike. A man and a woman, who are deeply rooted, who possess the lightness of the wing of the desire. Both feet held on their land, the head towards the far dim horizon line. This can be understood. Those ones listened to one another. To hear them, one has to get rid of the immodest of the deceitful appearance. All these, a priori that sticks to the color of the skin, history of passport from which our greatest pleasure comes from; music.

Jacques Denis
Translation Daouda Ballo