Tiken Jah Fakoly - Acoustic (Chapter Two Records/Wagram)

Tiken Jah Fakoly: “I’d been dreaming of an acoustic album for a long time. It was like a necessary return to tradition, and a way to highlight the voices in the songs. For the album ‘L’Africain’, in 2007 I met English producer Jonathan Quarmby, who has worked with Ziggy Marley, Finley Quaye, Kanye West, and so many others. After ‘L’Africain’, in 2010 we created ‘African Revolution’, followed by ‘Dernier Appel’ in 2013 and ‘Racines’ in 2015. The demos were always done acoustically, and it sounded great!”.

In the track list, you’ll find 13 acoustic versions of some of Tiken’s most well-known hits, such as ‘Tonton D’America’, ‘Le Balayeur’, ‘Ouvrez Les Frontières’, and ‘Ça Va Faire Mal’, interspersed with audio excerpts from the YouTube documentary ‘Tiken Jah, le descendant de Fakoly’ (Jessie Nottola, 2023). Additionally, the album is enriched with the new track ‘Arriver À Rêver’.

To add even more allure, Tiken invited a host of esteemed vocalists for various tracks. In opener ‘Plus Rien Ne M’étonne’ (immediately one of the absolute gems in the track list), we hear the voice of Naâman. In ‘Tonton D’America’, French veteran Bernard Lavilliers (described by Tiken as: “…a brother in arms, the one who brought reggae to France, like Serge Gainsbourg!”) makes an appearance (a reciprocal gesture for Tiken’s contribution to Lavilliers’ ‘Question De Peau’ from ‘Carnets De Bord’). Additionally, both Jamaican veteran Horace Andy and Brazilian artist Chico César contributed to the acoustic version of ‘Un Africain À Paris’.

Slightly lesser-known names include Malian Djely Tapa, who infuses ‘Alou Mayé’ with a distinctly African touch, and Tanzanian expatriate based in London, Tiggs Da Author, who makes an appearance in ‘Les Martyrs’.

Needless to say, the lyrics of Tiken’s songs stand out even more in these acoustic versions. The lyrics of the opener ‘Plus Rien Ne M’étonne’, for instance, have lost none of their relevance, and in light of Donald Trump’s recent statements regarding NATO, the line: “Si tu me donnes beaucoup de blé, moi je fais la guerre à tes côtés!” (“If you give me a lot of cash, I’ll stand by you in wartime!”) now sound almost prophetic.

That being said, the main protagonists of this album are the typical West African instruments such as the balafon (played by Adama ‘Bilorou’ Dembele), the ngoni and single-string suku (Adama Dembele), and above all, the delightful kora melodies of Cherif Soumano Mamadou, occasionally complemented on piano and ukulele by Jonathan Quarmby (‘Tonton D’America’, ‘Les Martyrs’, ‘Enfant De La Rue’, ‘Délivrance’).

What initially seemed like an easy way out due to a lack of new material ultimately results in a gem of an acoustic album that can rival many West African releases!