25.05.2018, 19.30 – Fatoumata Diawara unplugged at M.Bassy
Fatoumata Diawara will release her new album ‘Fenfo’, which translates as ‘something to say’, through Wagram/Montuno on 25th May. The follow-up to Diawara’s widely acclaimed debut ‘Fatou’, the album was co-produced by Diawara and Matthieu Chedid (better known by his stage name -M-) and recorded in Mali, Burkina Faso, Barcelona and Paris. Diawara, who will play a sold out date at London’s Jazz Café on 26th March, will unveil ‘Nterini’ (which means ‘my love/confidant’), the first single to be taken from ‘Fenfo’ on 8th March.
The ‘Nterini’ video, directed by Ethiopian photographer and contemporary artist Aïda Muluneh, will appear on streaming services on 9th March. As Fatoumata explains, ‘Nterini’ is a song about the heartache felt by two lovers separated by distance. My love and my confidant has gone far away and has not sent any news back to me. I love him despite everything and I miss him every day. I want to hear from my darling; otherwise I cannot sleep well at night.”
Hailed as one of the most vital standard-bearers of modern African music, Fatoumata Diawara takes her artistry to fresh and thrilling heights on her new album ‘Fenfo’. Boldly experimental yet respectful of her roots, it’s a record that defines her as the voice of young African womanhood – proud of her heritage but with a vision that looks confidently to the future and a message that is universal.
About Aïda Muluneh
Aïda Muluneh is considered one of the leading experts on photography from Africa. She has worked as a photojournalist at the Washington Post and her freelance work has appeared in a wide array of prestigious publications. As an exhibiting artist, Muluneh’s work has been shown internationally. A collection of her images can be found in the permanent collection at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art and her work is will soon be showcased in the “Being: New Photography 2018” exhibition at New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MOMA).
Diawara and Muluneh first met in Paris in 2017 and quickly fell in love with each others’ work. Shot on location in the Afar region in the northeast of Ethiopia, the concept behind Fenfo’s album art and the “Nterini” video is based on Afrofuturist influences in combination with visual elements inspired by Mali’s Dogon ethnic group. “When we speak of the future of Africa and the movement of Afrofuturism, it is in a sense to re-imagine a different Africa, one that explores a different dialogue outside of the foreign gaze,” Muluneh explains.
Music & Talk with Fatoumata Diawara and Musa Okwonga
25.05.2018 // 19.30 // This event is fully booked