Sousou and Maher

A couple united by a love of the koru, Sousou and Maher Cissoko, from Sweden and Senegal, brought a welcome new injection of African music to Indonesia.

Traveling for the first time to Bali, with their 6 week old baby, they invited Senegalese musician Vieux Aliou, from the local band Afronesia to join them on the drums. Chilean Patricio Labarca, from the newly reformed Garden Underground, joined them on bass guitar, while his daughter Antara and friend Avani, wooed the crowd as they danced beside him.

Sousou and Maher balance perfectly together, the masculine and feminine, internal and external. Singing songs of rebellion, peace, hope and heroines, their music is uplifting, rhythmic and otherworldly.

As each night of music keeps raising the bar, Sousou and Meher had had the staged warmed up for them by the ever impressive student band, Nasi Campur, and the Cudamani Kecak experience. Not that Cudamani kept to the stage – they split into four groups and gathered into a circle from four directions. Nothing like physically moving the crowd and confusing people. Kecak is inexplicable and fascinating – the movements, sounds, clicks, claps and rhythms. I can’t get enough.

Written by : Suki Zoe