Songhoy Blues - Héritage (Preorder 17/01/25)

Songhoy Blues - Héritage (Preorder 17/01/25)

Label: Transgressive - TRANS797X - 5400863162054
Format: LP, Album, Transparent Orange
Country: UK
Released: 17th Jan 2025
Genre: African
Style: African

Description
From the first listening to Héritage, the much-awaited fourth album by Songhoy Blues, it is clear that the 4-piece rock band from northern
Mali are in a new frame of mind. With Héritage, they move into a more acoustic, creative re-imagining of the “desert blues” style that has
brought them to world fame.

The Songhoy are an ethnicity living along the bend of the Niger river in northern Mali (their language is Songhai, hence the two spellings
that are often used interchangeably). Songhoy music is one of the backbones of the “desert blues” sound. Songhoy Blues pay tribute to
some of the great musicians of the past, whose work continues to inspire them, giving ‘a big thank you to the ancestors who bequeathed
works of art so that future generations could orient themselves’.
Charismatic, articulate and creative, the band burst onto the scene in 2013 with a powerful style and stage manner once described as
“Timbuktu Punk”. Their songs deal with issues of life and love in Mali, and are based on five-note scales, rock rhythms, gritty vocals, and
glittering guitar. These elements are ever present in their new album Héritage, but with a more intimate groove laced with other sounds
from different ethnic traditions from around the country. Migration and forced displacement bring new perspectives to the notion of
heritage in their music.
Héritage was recorded in the Remote Records Studio and Studio Moffou in Bamako, with producer Paul Chandler, and draws on the
remarkable wealth of musical talent in the city. The album presents new compositions and reworkings of old classics. It is infused with the
ethereal sounds of various traditional instruments, all in the hands of great Malian masters.
Héritage is compulsive listening for Songhoy Blues’ fans – at home and abroad - and more widely, fans of desert blues, rock, or just good
music.