On her first album featuring new songs since »Mogoya« (2017), Oumou Sangare proves once again to be the powerful voice that refuses to remain silent in the face of what is transpiring in her homeland of Mali. She wrote the songs of »Timbuktu« in involuntary coronavirus exile in Baltimore (Maryland, USA), and the album was recorded in the USA, Mali and France. Nevertheless, Timbuktu, the legendary city in the north of Mali, forms the glowing core of this music. While it is true that Oumou Sangare not only processes elements of the various traditions of Mali in her music, she also lets American blues flow in, not as a form, but rather through instruments like the dobro or slide guitar, the soft characteristics of which blend smoothly into the bluesy tones of Mali’s music. Lyrically, Oumou Sangare, who grew up in a poor quarter of the capital of Bamako, works on what are her already classic themes: the role of women in the patriarchal society of her homeland, the desolate situation of children in her country, the never-ending war there, but also pride in her country’s ancient culture characterise the lyrics of »Timbuktu«. Musically, Oumou Sangare sounds mature, but her messages are urgent and regrettably more topical than ever.
Timbuktu
