Solo & Indrė

Senegalese kora player, Solo Cissokho, and Lithuanian kanklės player, Indrė Jurgelevičiūtė, release their debut album. This is the first time these two instruments have been recorded together. It’s a fascinating meeting of traditional music cultures and sounds.

Senegalese musician Solo Cissokho plays kora, a string instrument from West Africa, and performs vocal parts. He is a griot – a special performer, storyteller and praise singer who transmits his African heritage through music. IndrėJurgelevičiūtė is a Lithuanian singer and kanklės (Baltic psaltery) player. She combines her native music roots with improvisations in different styles, taking the traditional kanklės sound in new directions.

Senegalese and Lithuanian folk melodies merge with spontaneous improvisations to create a mesmerising flow of acoustic music. The interlinking patterns of the kora and kanklės form a capturing narrative, as Solo and Indrė combine the warmth and playfulness of the southern hemisphere with the melancholy and peacefulness of the north. The combination of these two contrasting traditions offers quite a spectacular musical landscape in which their ancient stories share similar subjects such as nature and human connection and magic in everyday life.

The track “Damma – Gervė” has already won World Music Network’s Battle of the Bands competition. The albums is being played on the radio broadcasts in Belgium, Germany, USA, Lithuania, Senegal, Sweden, UK, Spain.