“Ankaben is proof that music does not need a common language to make people feel the same thing.”
There is a warmth to Sidiki Camara’s Ankaben that is difficult to ignore. The album feels alive from the way the percussion moves through the songs, but there is much more happening than rhythm alone. Camara brings the musical traditions of Mali together with Norwegian jazz, folk and contemporary sounds, and the result feels natural rather than forced. These musicians are not simply playing different styles next to each other. They are listening to one another. The percussion is the heart of the record. Camara gives the rhythms space to breathe, allowing them to lead the music while the other instruments respond around them. There is a physical quality to the playing. You can almost imagine the musicians in the room together, finding the shape of each piece as they go. That sense of interaction is important because Ankaben was built around improvisation and collaboration.
Ankaben
The saxophone adds another colour to the sound. Rather than sitting on top of the African rhythms, it becomes part of the conversation. There are moments where the jazz influence comes forward, bringing a freer feeling to the arrangements, before the percussion pulls everything back into its rhythmic centre. The fiddle is another particularly interesting part of the album. Its presence brings a Norwegian folk character into the music, creating a meeting point between two traditions that might seem very different at first. Alongside the guitars and bass, it gives the record a fuller sound without taking away from Camara’s percussion. The vocal performances also add plenty of personality. There is a sense of storytelling in the way the voices sit within the arrangements, while the spoken-word elements give some sections an almost conversational quality. Instead of treating the voice simply as another instrument, the album allows it to carry emotion and meaning. What stands out most is how much room there is in these songs. Ankaben does not feel rushed. The musicians are allowed to react to one another, and that gives the album an organic quality. You can hear the difference between music that has simply been arranged on paper and music created by people who are genuinely responding to each other in the moment.
The title, meaning “Humanity,” makes sense when you hear the album. Camara is bringing together musicians from different backgrounds, but the record does not spend its time pointing out those differences. Instead, it focuses on what happens when those differences are allowed to meet. The result can be joyful, reflective, energetic and sometimes deeply moving. There is also something beautiful about hearing an artist with more than five decades of experience still leaving space for discovery. Camara knows his tradition, but he is not trapped by it. He brings the sound of Mali into a very different musical environment and allows Norwegian jazz, folk and contemporary influences to change the conversation. That is what gives Ankaben its character. The album is not simply a showcase for percussion, jazz or West African music. It is a record built around interaction. A guitar responds to a drum. A saxophone finds its way through a rhythm. A fiddle adds a new accent. Voices bring another human layer to the sound. And underneath all of it is Camara’s central idea: people can meet through music even when they come from completely different places. Ankaben makes that idea feel less like a statement and more like something you can actually hear. It is warm, rhythmic, open and full of life. Most importantly, it feels like a group of musicians enjoying the act of creating together. In a time when there is so much division, that simple feeling carries real weight.
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