Could there be any musicians more apt to personify a Festival dedicated to unifying music from across the World and embracing the creativity that comes from bringing that diversity of sound together. The Over The Border Festival in Bonn is now in its 10th year and Mali’s celebrated kora master Ballaké Sissoko, together with London born singer/songwriter and poet Piers Faccini, is about to underline everything that makes this Festival so unique and so magical.
My first thoughts as I arrive at The Pantheon on a mild March evening are regarding the latest Bonn Council building plans. We’ve just come off the motorway and driven through rather dark and gloomy streets to park in what seems like a desolate backyard area. Is this really where Bonn opera lovers will be flocking to in future? They will certainly miss the river breeze, and a walk anywhere before or after the show. Will they be satisfied with a visit after the show to the MacDonalds down the road afterwards?
This is not to criticize The Pantheon which, to its credit, has managed to create a friendly atmosphere despite its location. Tonight Tonight the atmosphere is not just friendly though, it’s also expectant. Festival founder and organizer Manuel Banha has already tipped me off that this will be one of the jewels of this year’s events, and he proves to be correct. He didn’t warn me of the challenge I would face with reviewing it though. I tend towards words and phrases such as ‘like’ or ‘similar to’ or ‘reminds me of’ but all of these fly out of the window after the first song. There is so much going on here musically and lyrically that it proves impossible to find a point of comparison.
I had the opportunity to talk briefly to Piers Faccini before the show and learned that he is London born to an Italian father and his family moved to France when he was five. So the music of three countries is in his veins already. Add to this that he’s also a published author of childrens books and poetry. Oh, and he also did the artwork for the duos CD. Somehow all of that creativity is in the music and the lyrics. And THEN add the celebrated musical talent of Bamako born Ballaké Sissoko, one of the World’s premier players of the Kora – a harp/lute instrument with 21 strings. As Piers explains how the modal form of Westen music differs from non-western forms I find myself nodding my head but truthfully feeling lost in his description of musical modalities. I’m nodding my head without really understanding at all.
Music speaks louder than words do though and after the first couple of songs I begin to understand what he was describing. Faccini’s folk-style fingerpicking seems much more measured against those 21 strings belonging to Sissoko’s quick-draw melodies on the Kora. Somehow though, and this is where the magic comes in, it still all works to create a lullaby-like sound that perfectly showcases Faccini’s poetic lyrics, the themes of which revolve heavily around nature and, above all, birds in flight. ‘Mournful Moon’ has eagles crying out and a bird is “Out on the wing” in ‘Borne on the Wind’. Many birds of course are voracious travellers. They have to be to survive. Just as many people on this troubled Earth also travel to foreign lands to survive wars and famine.
Other songs make reference to something else that is forced into change by events outside of its control -Nature. I particularly enjoyed ‘Go where your eyes’ which started with a musical swirl reminiscent in texture to Rory Gallagher’s ‘Million Miles Away’ and embraces Nature as it references sea, sky, earth, wind and plough. Everything is simply stated as if to a child, poetically described, and woven together with a folksingers ear. What did I say earlier about all those strands being present in both music and lyrics?
We are of course priveleged to hear not one but two master musicians this evening and if Ballake Sissoko leaves the bulk of the talking to his English/Italian/French companion he is certainly very present indeed musically throughout. His late father Jeli Madi Sissoko was himself a celebrated Kora player – being part of a worldwide selling album called ‘Ancient Strings’ from 1970 that brought this music to international attention. It was this album that brought Kora music to western europe and inspired Piers Faccini to first work with Ballake Sissoko in 2005 – only discovering after the meeting that Ballake’s father was one of the players who so fascinated him. The evening’s final track reflects that meeting of not just cultures but generations – as Faccini sings ‘Kadidja’ in the Bambara language, backed both musically and vocally by Sissoko. The track that began their recorded collaboration. Two master musicians who began making musical excursions ‘Over the border’ long before Bonn celebrated such values with its current festival even.
This evening’s concert was the only one in Germany to date and followed a sold-out show at the Paris Olympia. I’m sure there will be many more shows in Germany, and indeed the World, to come. As Piers Faccini stated before the show, when I asked why they have waited 20 years to colloborate on an album together – “The time now seems right”. Let us hope that the worlds politicians can learn to work together peacefully like its musicians can.
