A wonderfully laid-back album, Calabashmoon blends Daniel Berkman's gorgeous kora playing with subtle beats and other little touches of vocals from regional performers for an overall feeling of sunny, world influenced goodness. Berkman is known for his innovations to this 21-stringed instrument, and in this collection of crafty and poignant pieces, he expertly weaves together a tapestry of sounds that gives the listener a sort of relaxed acoustic portrait of modern West Africa, from whence it comes. We especially like the two opening tracks and the excellent title track, "Mystery Box House."
m3u audio streams (if the flash player above doesn't work for you): [hifilofi] Play all tracks as an m3u audio stream (or xspf, ogg, mp3 file)
[hifilofi] 01-folkways (3:37)
[hifilofi] 02-baboullai and me (1:31)
[hifilofi] 03-breakaway (6:36)
[hifilofi] 04-two rings (2:43)
[hifilofi] 05-daydream in dakar (2:51)
[hifilofi] 06-ledge (3:33)
[hifilofi] 07-calabashmoon (4:57)
[hifilofi] 08-senegambia (2:26)
[hifilofi] 09-kelemane (3:24)
[hifilofi] 10-jala (0:58)
[hifilofi] 11-mystery box house (2:46)
[hifilofi] 12-train to bamako (3:59)
[hifilofi] 13-heartstrings 2004 (6:34)