After meeting through their shared participation in the transcontinental music project Wau Wau Collectif in 2021, Swedish flutist Annarella Sörlin and Mali-born, Senegal-based ngoni player Django Diabate went their separate ways–at first. The creative spark was already lit; three years later, we have Jouer, the duo’s release as Annarella and Django. There’s a simplicity to the basic idea of Jouer encompassed in its name; ultimately, this titular sense of play comes through from start to finish between the two very skilled musicians whose names accompany the album. For that simplicity, though, there is nothing flat or small or dull about Jouer. This is a spacious and often surprising collaboration, joyfully and carefully produced.
Opening the record is a brief introductory track featuring only the two key players, Annarella interweaving layers of acoustic guitar and flute with Django’s nimble ngoni. Balancing ease and energy, they open up an inviting sonic space for themselves and their listeners that only grows more engaging on the following track, “Aduna Ak Asaman”, where swaying rhythms from Annarella and collaborators Lars Fredrik Swahn, Karl Jonas Winqvist, and Per Lager and a lively fanfare from renowned Swedish folk musician Ale Möller on shawm back the dialogue between flute and ngoni.
The mix grows weightier but no less spirited on “Dakar-Orebrö”, a song that alludes to the key players’ hometowns and features the introduction of Django’s wife Marietou Kouyaté on vocals, Möller returning with some especially jazzy trumpet and a bed of radiant synths.
There is always more to play and joy and, for that matter, good music than what is found on the surface, and Jouer is no exception. “No More” features recordings of economist Richard Wolff discussing the inextricability of human suffering from the capitalist system sandwiched between melancholy lines from ngoni and flute. The bleak picture he paints makes the following track, “Sarajalela”, an ode to musically derived happiness, all the more meaningful. Annarella’s flute lines here take especially intricate and soaring trajectories.
“Kosmik Horisont” and “Degrees of Freedom” follow, increasingly transcendent with rippling touches of psychedelic keys and guitars coloring the mix. Poppy vocal piece “Megaphone” brings us back to more grounded movement, Marietou and Django singing over stylish drum beats. The gentle glow of “Hommage á Dallas Dialy Mory Diabate”, the levity of the interlude “Tankefigur”, and the immersive “Pluie Melancholique” close Jouer, a soft and gradual landing marked by never-tapering skill.
When Annarella and Django play, it’s for the love of playing. Jouer is unassuming and unpretentious in presentation, and yet the music within it sparkles, its effervescence emerging from deeply rooted creativity. These artists listen to each other as they choose their paths, and their respect for one another builds a dynamic core that holds together as it moves. The collaborators who join them only enhance Annarella and Django’s joint work, adding to the sonic richness of Jouer without taking away from its central figures. Jouer is lush with thought, skill, and, yes, play, intangible elements that make this genre-defying album superb and satisfying.