ALY KEÏTA – JAN GALEGA BRÖNNIMANN – LUCAS NIGGLI (CI/CH)

A virtuoso on the balafon, the African xylophone, Aly Keïta is the descendant of an African singing family who used her move to Europe to play with prominent figures from the continent's musical culture, from Joe Zawinul to Jan Garbarek. The other two members of his trio, Jan Galega Brönnimann and Lucas Niggli, are both Swiss-born but Cameroonian-born, and have a long-standing knowledge not only of each other but also of African musical traditions. Their first album, Kalo Yele, was followed four years later by the intensely colourful Kalan Teban (Intakt Records, 2020), which features mesmerising melodies of balafon, drum grooves and high-arching improvisations with wind instruments.