Raaga Trio

Raaga Trio plays a subtle blend of jazz and traditional West-African music and was created in 2007 following a meeting of three musicians all from different backgrounds whilst rehearsing on another project. They started creating music together, each drawing on their own style and searching for new ways of creating compositions in a completely organic way - they never talk about what they are going to play - they just play. The word "Raaga" meaning "market" comes from the local Morée dialect from Burkina Faso which fittingly describes the way these musicians create their music - like exchanges in a West African Market! The music pulls you into deep currents of Manding feeling, experimental and jazzy sounds which sweep you away. The magnificent ngoni and bass ngoni of Andra Kouyaté (Mali) who is pushing boundaries by deliberately trying to lose himself in music in search of new ways to play differently each time; the excellent rhythms of the percussionist Baba Konaté (Burkina Faso) with a rhythmic vocabulary taken from all his musical experiences of working with bands around the world; the harmonious, electric tones of Andreas Fulgosi's (Italy) superb guitar work come together in naturally created melodies through harmonies influenced by western classical and modern music and resulting in an original sound balance between traditional music and rock, deeply enriched by the West African music culture. In 2009 Raaga Trio became a quartet when they were joined by a fourth member following a jam session. The powerful dubs of Guillaume Lagger (Switzerland) on harmonica bind everything together through the original sounds created by electronic guitar effects, giving more power and adding an extra dimension to the music. Following on from a number of successful concerts in Europe and most recently in Algeria and a West African tour this spring, Raaga Trio are ready to release their first album 'The Other Edge'. It has been recorded by Renaud Millet-Lacombe at Hush Sound Studio in Switzerland and is set to be released during the summer of 2010. This music is an invitation to embark on a journey through sound, and a chance to experience its positivism, its humanity and its generosity. Listen without moderation... Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.