Homeland by Seckou Keita – Album Review

By David Schuster

Seckou Keita’s latest in a long line of album releases is a fresh, beautiful and poignant mélange of joyous tracks. It’s one of those rare records that deserves a place in your (physical or virtual) collection, regardless of what genres of music you normally listen to.

For those unfamiliar with him, Keita is a kora player and drummer, originally hailing from Casamance in southern Senegal, but now resident near Nottingham, UK. He travels widely, recording and mixing this release in Senegal, the UK, Belgium and Germany. He regularly tours in those countries, as well as across Spain, France, Portugal, Greece, and the Czech Republic. This includes playing the prestigious WOMAD and Glastonbury festivals. The twelve tracks explore the concept of homeland from this unique perspective as a citizen of the world, and effortlessly capture that fluidity of movement, in French, English, Mandinka and Wolof, all of which are used in Senegal.

Seckou Keita, 2024
image: Pape Photoma

“Hypnotic spell”

The opening and closing songs are both delivered in the griot style, West Africa’s oral tradition, into which he was born. Both are instantly engaging, even to those, (like myself), who don’t have the linguistic ability to understand the words. These bookend the record in a very pleasing way. They are delivered in a fast paced, rhythmic way that weaves an almost hypnotic spell on the listener. The nearest parallel I can draw, outside of the West African music scene, is Sean McGowan’s powerful ‘Mind the Doors’, off Son Of The Smith. The lyrics are narrated by Abdoulaye Sidibé, an expert and custodian of Mandinka culture. Such collaborations are the cornerstone of Homeland, which grew from an idea in 2017 when he worked with Senegalese superstar Baaba Maal. It’s very much a creative conglomerate, drawn together by the musician, around the central melodies of the kora. These include his friend, and world famous producer Youssou N’Dour, and co-producer Moussa Ngom.

The kora is a multi-stringed instrument, plucked by the player, producing gorgeous cascading waterfalls of notes in much the same way as a harp or dulcimer. Keita though is recognised as having expanded and built upon the traditional settings for the instrument. So, this is an album where different styles complement each other, rather than jarring. Poppy tunes, such as ‘Chaque Jour’, ‘Ni Mala Beuge’ and ‘Bodoula’, would go down well in chilled Ibiza clubs, but nestle comfortably against the tracks where the kora features more traditionally, for example ‘Yerebe’. It’s great to see the flow of West African musical influences into the European music scene being led by those immersed in its culture.

“Complex”

Cleverly, Seckou recognises that other cultures also have their own oral traditions and there are two spoken word tracks by poets Zena Edwards and Hannah Lowe. Edwards’ ‘Reflections’, set upon a train journey, uses literal reflections as a metaphor for internal reflection. By contrast, Lowe’s ‘Deportation Blues’ starkly emphasises the inherent cruelty of the process, by use of repeated phrasing.

I do have one criticism; several of the songs truncate abruptly and unnaturally. Given the album’s heavyweight co-producers, this seems a strange anomaly, and was perhaps a feature of my streamed copy. Leaving that very minor niggle aside, the faster tunes particularly are underpinned by the complex, varied and deeply impressive polyrhythmic drumming that characterises the mbalax genre of urban dance music. This though, is perhaps unsurprising, given Seckou is such a talented multi-instrumentalist, listing drumming amongst his many skills.

It’s rare that a record draws you into its spell so swiftly and deeply. Homeland is subtitled ‘Chapter 1’. Bring on the next chapter! Play Homeland next time you have friends round, I guarantee that it will get people talking.

‘Homeland’ by Seckou Keita is out now