NilsKercher Rec.
Nils Kercher : Ancient Imitations (D,2011)***'
Nils Kercher learned the 21-string harp called the kora with Fodé Kalissa (until Fodé's death), and traditional music with several other masters in Guinea during several stays. His approach is a bit different and a bit more vaguely tuning in as if imagining a certain lost area where this music belongs, tapping a sort of lesser defined energy, feeling its roots spread through history with some European off-springs from another past. Nils sings a few songs with words in Soussu or Mialinke (two West African languages), in Finnish (Nils partner being another kora and balafon player and singer is Finnish), or becoming vaguely moodily into hehaas, jehoos and wohoos with a sensibility into the same areas. In this way, with the African imagination with closed eyes this makes the music more ethereal and like a less a founded spirituality, like New Age. Still this combination of percussion, voice and kora remain having an attractive sensibility. The wood percussion is truly colourful and a few tracks are even led by it. Additionally there are sessions with harmony textures by cello. On “Sacred Forest” the colourful percussion gets many voice harmonies by different voices improvising in the background like a breathing out, swinging mood rhythm. On “I Siga Fe Minden?” we hear some Guinean children and a breathy flute tune intro, and also some marimba and different sorts of xylophones. “Talven Syli” is again very different, building up an improvisation with string instruments and voices, like an improvisation on an old music sensibility, breathing and creating its mood slowly, adding violin plucks and more chamber strings arrangement the female voice remains with the ethereal mood. Although I feel that most of the tracks depend on what is mood creation mostly, it is good that different angles and instruments were tried to create something similar. The choice of instruments and voices always combined nicely.
Nils Kercher (Germany) for the compositions, playing the kora, besides vocals, balafon, percussion, flute, violin ; Kira Kaipainen (Finland): vocals ; Malgosia Wosinska (Poland): vocals ; Thomas Steudel (Germany): violoncello ; Anne Meyer-Seeßelberg (Germany): vocals, flute ; Antonia Brunnert (Germany/USA): violin ; Thomas Christaller and Ed Winkler (Germany) background vocal.
Live Nils will be play with Kira Kaipainen on vocals, percussion, balafon, dance ; Sue Schlotte on violoncello and with Thomas Klöwer on acoustic guitar with optionally Sylvia Laube on vocals, dance, percussion, acoustic guitar (France/Caribbean, previously touring with Malian singer Rokia Traore, South African singer Sam Tshabalala and Angelique Kidjo) and Dinesh Mishra on Bansuri and Indian bamboo flute (India/Germany, master student of Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, well known through his cooperation with Markus Stockhausen and his numerous compositions for Bollywood).
