Korolen is a very special collaboration between two titans in music: Toumani Diabate, the Grammy-winning Malian kora virtuoso, and the London Symphony Orchestra, renowned worldwide for their performances of orchestral music on record, film and stage. Diabate, a griot whose musical lineage stretches back generations, is well known as one of the most creative musicians on the African continent, and is almost single-handedly responsible for bringing the iconic sound of the kora to worldwide audiences. No stranger to a genre-defying collaboration, he has recorded two Grammy-winning albums alongside desert blues pioneer Ali Farka Toure, as well as projects with Taj Mahal, Bjork, Bela Fleck, Damon Albarn and Afrocubism. Commissioned as a special project by the Barbican Centre in London and produced by World Circuit, these recordings feature Diabate and his group of eminent Malian musicians (including Kasse Mady Diabate and Lassana Diabate), accompanied by the soaring presence of the LSO, in dedicated arrangements by Nico Muhly and Ian Gardiner and conducted by Clark Rundell. The title bestowed by Diabaté on this unique and groundbreaking release, Korolen translates from the Mandinka language as ancestral—a fitting theme for an album that brings together ancient griot melodies and Western orchestral arrangements, resulting in an achingly beautiful and fresh Afro-neo- classical sound that will appeal to admirers of African, traditional and new classical, and ambient music. Track Listing 1. Hainamady Town 2. Mama Souraka 3. Elyne Road 4. Cantelowes Dream 5. Moon Kaira 6. Mamadou Kanda Keita
