No party without dancing - one of the dancers Blandine Yameogo	We have meet Solo Cissokho (right) before at the Førde Fetival		Blandine shakes it all out
Here he is, the living legend		Ali spent one week with the band before the concert, the contact is definately there	Most of all, Ali is a blues man	Toure playing at his one string njarka fiddle
.		Toure is a blues man, he is also deaply rooted in typical West African music.  But mainly he is great a communicater. Sharing the simple message of love and joy.	In the end he sits down at the stage, "talking" directly to the audience.	.

My mind went to the ongoing bombing of Afganistan, and to the terror act at 11. sept. Our leaders claims this as a religious war, a war between cultures. The fact that it still is possible to have concerts like this gives me hope. Here we are, listening to Islamic sufi poetry, in a beautyfull protestantic church. We don't understand a word, but still the music and the poetry goes directly to our hearts - communication across cultural differences.

We will not review the concert here. But it struck me, the voices of Omoumi and Rassâ'i sounds beautyfull together, it was a lovely synergi. So if there is somebody of the record industry reading this, please put these two people together in a record studio. I am convinced a recording project like this would turn into great art.
 

From left Madjid Khaladj, Tombak, Houssein Omoumi, ney/song, Afsâneh Rassâ'i, song, and Hossein Alizâdeh, tar/setar.

Three Tombak drums at one stage. For more info on Tombak, try this link		At the left, Gerami Haghighi Mehregan, with his sourkhaneh drum, the "mother" of the tombak
The spiritual drum daf. The photographer was very facinated  by the light shining in it.	In front, Reza Samani, with his  Ney-aban, a bagpipe instrument

Kristin Asbjørnsen,  the singer in Dadafon	A Dadafon concert is a travel through a soundscape,  the soundengineer have an important task.	Blå is a modern jazzclub,  based in basement  near the river in Oslo
Kristin is a very intence  stage personality,  singing and dancing  like it is a matter of life and death	The balafon is a central part of the act, in the background, some of the percursive "stacks", including electronic drums, mixmaster,  bicyclewheels, mail box and so on.	A lot of the grooves  comes from the guitar player, Jostein Ansnes, in the background. After the concert he tells me about his inspiration from freerock bands like King Krimson and others

Bonga delivered his goods, a show of dancemusic in  Semba traditions

The rolling beats of the mbira/likembe is transformed to modern electric instruments

The Kinkeliba Project is a sophisticated mix. The poetic African Kora from Mr. Basiru Suso meets the heavy metal and bluesy guitars of Mikkel Nordsø! It is also tempting to compare with the samba rock of Carlos Santana. Below this there is a Western drumkit and West African percursions. Diallos funky bass and delicate voice connects it. Phuh, it swings!

Check this link to the dialorecords (there are two CD's out there, and another coming soon, recomended)
 

Moussa Diallo himself	Basiru Suso, Kora (left) and Malick Jagne percursion
Mikkel Nordsjø (left)		Solo Cissokho (right) salutes his brother. Solo, do you enter every stage in your sight? (-;

Arto Tuncboyciyan (right) and his Armenian Navy Band	The most typical Armenian instrument, the Duduk, is an important engredience	Anahit (right) with a dulcimerinstrument Kanun, and Armen at Kemanche	The "brazz" in the background is an important part of Armenian music tradition
	Arto plays percursion, a stringinstrument Sazabo, flirts with us, and sings with his sensitive voice	Parts of his percurion rig is homemade (copper drums). Arto also uses bottles, cettles and other strange thing. Like other master chefs he knows what to put in them.