Ballaké Sissoko

Son of Djelimady Sissoko, Malian musician Ballaké Sissoko was born in Bamako in 1967. A specialist of the kora, a 21-string African instrument, he performs both solo and in group with the trio 3MA, or with numerous collaborators including Mandé Tabolo, Toumani Diabaté and Ludovico Einaudi, with whom he recorded the album Diario Mali (2005). Author of other traditional albums under his own name, such as Kora Music from Mali (2002) and Tomora (2005), he signed with the independent label NoFormat, for whom he produced At Peace (2012), Djourou (2021) and A Touma (2021). He begins a regular collaboration with Bumcello cellist Vincent Ségal, starting with the album Chamber Music (2009) and continuing on Musique de Nuit (2015) and Les Égarés (2023), also featuring saxophonist Émile Parisien and accordionist Vincent Peirani. This collaboration ranks 45th in the French jazz sales and listening charts. Adept at unusual and unexpected associations, the kora player combines his instrument with very different musicians. In 2024, he signed an album with South African guitarist and producer Derek Gripper, another with jazz flutist Nicole Mitchell, Bamako*Chicago Sound System, and a third with sound designer Lorenzo Bianchi Hoesch, Radicants. In 2025, another collaboration was born with Briton Piers Faccini for the album Our Calling, between the crystalline sounds of the kora and the intimate folk of the latter.