touki

There will be tickets available on the door for this event after on line sales close.

Amadou Diagne has centuries of West African music at his fingertips. Cory Seznec is a musical wanderer and uncertified ethnomusicologist. A chance encounter while busking in Bath planted the seeds of a collaboration that’s been fermenting now for over a decade.

Touki means “journey” in Wolof, Diagne’s mother tongue. Their music focuses on climate change, environmental activism and spiritual matters — drawing together West African fables, personal stories and the social, economic and political challenges facing both developing countries and western ones. This is music that asks ecological, spiritual, and political questions.

Touki’s sound infuses East and West African styles and traditions with Appalachian banjo, folk motifs, and orchestral arrangements. Diagne’s powerful percussion, Seznec’s syncopated guitar-picking and rapid-fire banjo-frailing and on the road, Touki tour as a trio with American accordionist virtuoso Michael Ward-Bergeman. Michael’s strong bonds with Cory were forged two decades ago as founding members of the band Groanbox, when they first met Amadou.

As they sail through the cross currents of our complex world, Touki understands that the musical voyage itself is the destination.

This event will be mostly SEATED. Anyone with accessibility concerns is welcome to call the venue to discuss. £12.50 advance, £16 on the door.