Through expressive singing and the rhythmically rocking kora repertoire from Casamance, spiced up by drumming, they hope to bring this beautiful West African music closer to you. Their repetoire consists of both traditional and self composed songs, which are created with one foot in tradition and the other foot in the present. Maher Cissoko was born to be a kora player and has developed his own danceable kora style. Sousou Cissoko was captured by the sound of the kora and is now one of very few female kora players in the world.
Maher Cissoko was raised with the West African music tradition in Casamance in southern Senegal. He is from a famous Jali family and has been surrounded by music during all his life. Jalis are Griots (hereditary musicians) and they have functioned as carriers of history and tradition from generation to generation for more than 700 years. Maher learnt playing the kora from his father Jali Kemo Cissoko and singing from his mother Bintou Konte from Mali. Besides playing the kora, Maher also learnt how to play many different West African percussion intruments during his upbringing, such as Calabash, Djembe, Doun-Doun and Tama (Talking Drum). Maher has been living in Germany where he was playing with musicians from different parts of the world, exploring jazz and flamenco music as well as his own kora music. He has also been touring around European festivals such as Womad and Glastonbury with his brother Solo Cissokho and the family band Jalikunda Cissokho.
Sousou Cissoko (Given name: Sousou Hagberth Gottlow) was born in southern Sweden in a family full of music. Sousou fell in love with the kora the very first time she heard it, and she decided to travel to the Gambia to study the kora with the kora master Jali Alagi Mbye. According to the tradition, the kora has previously only been played by men, so before Alagi could teach a woman he had to ask the old kora masters in the countryside why women didn’t play the kora. Since he didn’t get any good answers to that question, Alagi decided to start teaching women. Sousou has been studying the West African musical tradition during several trips to the Gambia and Senegal. When Sousou met Solo Cissokho he invited her to study with his family in Ziguinchor. “You just take the taxi to Ziguinchor and ask the driver where I live and you will find my home,” said Solo, and that’s exactly what she did a few months later. Sousou and Maher met the very same day she arrived in Ziguinchor. And the story goes on … n..
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