Ablaye Cissoko & Cyrille Brotto

(SN/FR)

Ablaye Cissoko & Cyrille Brotto represent a rare convergence between the age-old oral tradition of West African griots and the dance-like rhythms of southern France. At the crossroads of mandinga tradition, folk music, traditional European dance, jazz and classical music.

Ablaye Cissoko lives in Saint-Louis, Senegal. He is a descendant of griots, the traditional guardians of West African mandinga culture, known locally as djelis. Historians, genealogists, storytellers who pass on knowledge from father to son through music. Cissoko, known as ‘Le Griot Rouge’, a symbol of an age-old tradition in constant reinvention, is a masterful performer on the kora. An instrument with eight hundred years of history, combining the characteristics of the lute and the harp, used extensively by djeli. families. In his hands, the 21-string kora is neither a museum piece nor a folkloric curiosity: it is a living being, capable of whispering and screaming, of recounting suffering and joy with the same naturalness with which rain falls. Softness of tone, delicacy of melodic lines, fluidity of touch, unostentatious virtuosity, purity and generosity.

Cissoko is probably one of the most versatile African artists of his generation, moving with equal ease through the worlds of world music, jazz, classical and even Baroque, particularly in the fruitful collaborations he has developed with the Ensemble Constantinople led by the Iranian Kiya Tabassian.

Cyrille Brotto hails from the heart of rural France, where the diatonic accordion is a mother tongue, an instrument of celebration and remembrance, the voice of the fields and Occitan taverns. He is a musician accustomed to getting entire villages dancing, but also to experimenting with electronic music and contemporary styles in fascinating projects such as Groove Factory.

The meeting of the two results in a dialogue that is both unlikely and obvious at the same time. An almost telepathic rapport. It is not fusion in the easy sense of the word. It is a conversation between equals, a mutual and contemplative listening taken to a degree of refinement that few manage to achieve.

In 2025, following the beautiful 2022 album Instant , the pair returned with Djiyo,, meaning ‘water’, bringing their spiritual and mystical songs rooted in the dialogue between the kora and the accordion. The water of the title is no gratuitous metaphor: it is the exact image of what this music does: it flows, circumvents obstacles, finds its way, unites what seemed separate.

The result is Afro-European chamber music: intimate, warm, with hints of jazz improvisation, yet rooted in a tradition that knows exactly where it comes from.