Badiane - Flavours

With music that is almost weightless and yet has an intensity that is seldom heard, on its current production "Flavours" the quartet interweaves what initially appears to be incompatible into a highly individual and original musical whole. Like a talented four-star master chef, Badiane combines not only the finest aromas of various styles into an extraordinary and equally choice menu for musical connoisseurs, but the instruments used - five-string banjo, mandoline, violin, contrabass, vibraphone and percussion - also set remarkable accents which are a pleasant contrast to the many "fast-food" productions. Those who understand "worldmusic" to be more than the underlaying of foreign melodies with banal dance grooves, and those who do not consider the egalitarian coexistence of African-Indian rhythms and baroque themes from the pen of Johann Sebastian Bach to be a sacrilege but an expansion of the musical horizon, in short: those who have open ears extending beyond the convenient stereotypical thinking will undoubtedly value Badiane and its current album "Flavours" as one of the most important new discoveries of this year.