In recent decades, Mali has produced a lot of beautiful music, but rarely has it been interpreted with as much class as the compositions of Trio Da Kali. Its three musicians all come from the centuries-old griot tradition. What this means is that they grew up in musical families that guard the musical heritage, and also always ensure that history doesn’t fade with time, but is infused with new life through modern musical variations. For example, Mamadou Kouyaté’s stringed instrument the ngoni can also be heard regularly in the hip-hop scene of Bamako. The trio released their critically acclaimed album Ladilikan in 2017 with the Kronos Quartet, on which ngoni, balafon (marimba), and vocals are enhanced with European classical influences. Since then, Trio Da Kali has performed this music with various string quartets, such as the North Sea String Quartet, which is renowned for the way they interpret music from all over the world.
