Guide to the Week of Music: Amadou & Mariam’s RBMA lecture, Jacco Gardner, new sounds and visuals

Welcome to the Guide to the Week of Music, a round-up of music news, media and releases from the wide musical world. This week, we dive into Jacco Gardner’s new instrumental LP for our repeat listen and check out some new music and visuals.

Amadou & Mariam share their story with the RBMA

Amadou & Mariam’s personal and musical connection has endeared them to listeners around the world. The Malian musicians met at the Institute for the Young Blind in Bamako during the mid-seventies, where they developed a rapport that would see them performing together in Les Ambassadeurs and eventually, as a duo. Their visual impairments haven’t prevented them from learning multiple languages and becoming great communicators, but for audiences fluent only in English, there has previously existed a communication barrier. However, thanks to live translation, Amadou and Mariam were able to host a seamless lecture at the Red Bull Music Academy recently, taking questions from their English-speaking interviewer and audience members, as they shared their story.

Points of discussion included the pair’s appreciation of a wide variety of music; Amadou and Mariam referencing everything from Led Zeppelin to Jean-Michel Jarre in the discussion. Also spoken about was synaesthesia and imagined imagery – Amadou discussing how different colours are assigned to different instruments in his mind. They also spoke of their life in present day Mali, describing it as a place with music on almost every corner. Stream the informative, subtitled lecture below.

Check out the full article via the Guide to the World of Music, here.